Prankwar
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: Hairdye, chocolate, chilli, balloons and glue. Who says that Terra and Aqua only have a mature side? Ven could tell you all about how wrong that assumption is. It all started with a combination of sleeping pills, painkillers, Terra and... Da Bomb? What chaos will an epic prank war between them cause when both parties are too stubborn to admit their hidden feelings; Love or Hatred?
1. A little too much

**A/N: I don't own anything of KH, only this one-shot. Yes, another TerraxAqua one-shot, my (and probably yours too) new obsession. XD So just to make things clear, this happened _after_ my one-shot "Lazy Afternoon." I kinda was in a strange mood when I wrote this, so sorry if it's a bit confusing. Now that I've read it again, I have to admit that I have no idea what I was doing...**

* * *

_~ She sighed wearily, firmly believing that the world somehow had decided to torture her today. ~_

* * *

It was quiet in the castle. There was an almost eerily silence. One that gave you goosebumps if it lasted too long for your liking. Aqua, however, liked this silence. She thought it was peaceful and there weren't many times that it was this quiet in the castle, what with Ven's hyperness and his personal efforts to fill in any silence that would start to form. Thinking of that made her smile.

The only sound that the blue-haired young woman could hear was the ticking of the clock on her wall, until...

_BANG! KRRRG!_

A long-suffering sigh unintentionally escaped Aqua's lips for the umpteenth time that day. Of course, she could have known that that peaceful silence wouldn't stay too long...unfortunately. She uncomfortably shifted back and forth in her desk chair, trying to focus on what was so important for her and ignore the pretty hard and annoying banging that seemed to come from Terra's room, which was opposite of hers. Making action of her words was kinda hard, though. Too hard.

_BANG! KRRRG!_

One could clearly see the vein that had appeared in her temple if they looked at her close enough. It was a sign of grave danger for the one who caused her angry look, which was also known as the "I-think-I-might-just-slap-someone-expression." And for those who were oblivious to that fact, there were her deep frown and narrowed eyes that strengthened the major "danger-impact."

A little less than ten minutes ago, she had still been able to be completely engrossed in a rather exciting book that she had taken from the library downstairs. (Yes, she was a bookworm, got a problem with that?) The book focused mainly on the theory behind certain useful magical tactics and attacks with the Keyblade. She was reading it, because it could be of good use during her Master qualification exam. Of course, that day still was so far away that it almost looked impossible that that moment would come. One couldn't start early enough with practising, though, because before you knew it, it would be far too late. Yes, exactly ten minutes ago, everything had been okay, because just ten minutes ago it had still been _quiet_. A comfortable and relaxing silence. Who knew what on earth Terra was doing right now in his room.

_BANG! KRRRG!_

Maybe he was doing it on purpose, just to annoy her enough, so she would go and take a look to discover from where the extremely annoying sound came from and he would put up some stupid prank with her. She wouldn't be too surprised if that was the plan.

Being suspicious? Well, she had learned one important thing during these years from living with Terra: if it was about him, then one just couldn't be careful enough. He had been quite annoying today, too. To her great shame, the blue-haired mage had lost a sparring match from him and he had been reminding her of this little fact the whole day.

_BANG! KRRRG!_

She started to wonder how it was even possible that Master Eraqus was not bothered by him. Maybe the Master was sitting a few floors down and therefore didn't hear this disturbing sound. Or he finally was getting deaf. You never knew it with that man. Sometimes it was so unbelievably frustrating to be the only girl who lived with two complete oddballs (because the Master was the only normal person around, other than her). Unfortunately, her worldview had already altered intensely, thanks to both Ven and Terra.

_BOOM!_

Hey, that sounded was kinda different from the previous ones, she mused, frowning lightly. A deafening silence followed after the dull thud that had practically made the whole floor tremble slightly. Aqua waited impatiently until some sound, a sound of a living soul, _anything_, would come from Terra's room...

Nothing happened, though.

She sighed wearily, firmly believing that the world somehow had decided to torture her today. Maybe it was better to check out whatever the heck he was doing, for there still was a very small chance that something had happened to him. Something bad. For example, he could have hurt himself badly with his actions.

After a short while, when she couldn't take it anymore, her curiosity and worry made her rose up slowly from the chair she had been sitting on and she tiptoed to the door. Opening it slightly, she saw that the hallway was deserted, which was nothing new. Terra's door was closed. She fervently hoped that he hadn't locked it. Not because she wouldn't be able to open it (after all, she had a Keyblade), but more because that would feel like she was intruding his privacy. She stood still in front of his bedroom door, lingering a little. Should she really do this? This would be another reason for him to tease her with afterwards, if nothing was wrong. She already knew how he would call her then, an over-protective mother, or maybe even something worse. She slowly and quite hesitantly stretched out her hand to knock on the door three times. A deafening silence was what followed, which made her wonder if he had heard her or not.

She cleared her throat. "Terra?" Aqua tried not to say it too loudly, just in case Master Eraqus would hear her. Apparently, Terra had decided not to answer her this time, so she tried again. "Terra, are you okay?"

She put her ear against the door to see if she could make out a sound. A soft groan, barely audible, was heard on the other side of the door. So he still was alive? That was the sign for Aqua to snap into action.

Without warning, she opened the golden-colored barrier between her and Terra and stepped inside. "Terra, what are you-"

The scene she saw then, ensured that her mouth fell open in pure astonishment and leave her at a loss of words. The brown-haired teen lay on the ground, having underwear on his head and firmly holding onto his thumb with his other hand, for some unknown reason. His face was slightly twisted into a grimace of pain.

By the looks of it, his whole room was turned upside down and inside out. Clothes, books and other random belongings - she couldn't see what exactly they were, because it was so dark in the room. The curtains were closed - were scattered in different piles. The first question that crossed Aqua's mind was: What had happened? Had a hurricane blown in his room? It honestly almost looked as though the Apocalypse had taken place here. Terra looked at her direction as soon as he heard her voice. This sudden movement made his underwear fall off his head, but he didn't pay any attention to it. His eyes were blurred and he didn't seem to be embarrassed by her catching him like this at all.

"...Doing?" she uttered, bewildered, blinking a couple of times, just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

He immediately struggled to get to his feet, violently swaying back and forth. This probably wasn't going to end that well. Aqua quickly jumped up to him, being just in time to catch him and prevent him from falling and breaking some bones. She had to admit that he was pretty heavy. It had to be because of all the muscles. How much would he weigh? Right now, she actually didn't want to know that. Instead, she put all her effort into dragging Terra to his bed, where he collapsed as soon as he felt the soft surface underneath him, while dragging Aqua with him in the process. She did her best not to topple over him, bracing herself without any success. He was too strong for her. Their lips brushed lightly against each other when she fell half on top of him, making her blush furiously, her heart skipping a beat or two. They both panted lightly, while Aqua tried to free herself from the tangle of arms and legs, which was quite a task.

"Hmm, I have to admit that I enjoy the beautiful view from here. I assume I don't have to mention the sweet and unexpected kiss?" Terra remarked out of the blue. "This makes me wonder... Am I dreaming again?"

Aqua blushed even more at those words, as a weird expression appeared on her face. She narrowed her eyes and quickly got up, away from him, when she realized that he just admitted that he was dreaming more often of her. It was a small wonder that Master Eraqus hadn't walked in on them just to see them lying like this. That would give a rather wrong impression to their teacher, not to mention that it would be so emarrassing! At that moment, Terra started humming a random song that Aqua recognized as "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Just what was he doing?

"Let's pretend I just didn't hear that, otherwise I'm afraid I have to smack you. What - what happened?" Aqua asked, completely stunned.

Terra's brow furrowed slightly. "I had lost something... I've looked everywhere for it, but I still can't find it anywhere. Maybe it's gone... probably forever. Oh, why does life always have to be so mean for me?"

His face fell.

So that was why the beating had continued undisturbedly. Terra sounded sad and irritated at the same time. Talk about rather scary mood swings...

"But what have you lost, then?" the young woman inquired, curiously.

Maybe she could help him finding it, so she could finally go back to read her book that was still waiting for her. She hadn't even finished the first chapter yet, which was quite a shame, now that she thought of it.

Terra looked away. "That...that doesn't matter now."

Aqua sighed deeply, something she had been doing a lot around him today. Was he drunk or something? He knew very well that Master Eraqus had forbidden them to drink liquor, unless there was a very special occasion. This would bring him in very deep trouble, if the Master found out.

"_Okay_... Why were you lying on the ground? Are you hurt?" she asked, sounding worried again all of a sudden.

A small frown appeared on her forehead, when Terra nodded slowly and slightly reluctantly. "Papercut," was the simple and rapid response.

She gave him a rather puzzled look, because she didn't hear what he said. "Excuse me?"

"I got a papercut. Look, it's right here," he repeated in exactly the same tone.

He held his thumb in front of her face, a little bit too close. She saw nothing, though. Once again, Aqua gave him a questioning look.

"Look closer," he demanded in a serious voice.

Once again, Aqua sighed deeply. She started to get fed up with his unexplainably childish behavior. That, and she hated it when someone bossed her around like that, but she did what he had asked her anyway. Whe she looked closer, she could clearly see a tiny mark on his skin, exactly on the place where the skin had been cut by paper.

"So don't I get a kiss now?"

Aqua quirked a thin eyebrow at his sudden impertinence. Was he feeling lucky today, or something?

"Pardon me?"

"You heard me. I know you did."

A sly smirk made its way to his lips.

"Why would you get a kiss now?"

The situation was getting stranger and stranger within every second. Despite of that, Aqua secretly wanted to know where this was going to. Terra never had been the one who talked about his feelings this freely, so maybe she could make him do so today. The results could be interesting and she was sure that he would reveal some shocking things about himself eventually.

"_Hello_? I'm in miserable pain, remember? My mom always gave me hugs and kisses whenever I would fall and scrape my knee or something when I was little," he defended.

Oh, how incredibly tough of him. He sounded like he was explaining something very easy to a four-year old child who didn't seem to understand anything of what he was saying.

Aqua tried not to roll her eyes at that comment as she ran a hand through her shiny blue hair. "One: there's a big difference between your mother and I: I'm _not_ your mother! And two: you're not a little boy anymore. Toughen up!"

Terra blinked his eyes, probably thinking of a good comeback.

And by the looks of it, he had found one...unfortunately. "True, but I'm still a little boy deep down inside. I thought you already knew that by now. And two: you always behave like my mother. It's almost _creepy _how similar you're acting like her! Especially your whining makes me think of her sometimes. It's kinda unbearable," he muttered under his breath. He sure was talking a lot today, Aqua thought. Mostly rubbish. The brunet male continued, "Man, I had never thought I would miss her _so much_. And here I mean especially her cooking. Nobody can make better pancakes than her. Not even _you_."

Aqua narrowed her eyes at that. "Really?" she asked.

"Yeah, most_ definitely_."

Okay, now he was going a bit _too_ far. Commenting on her cooking was something one shouldn't do if one wanted to keep Aqua as a friend. The dangerous vein in her temple that had been temporarily gone, appeared on its right place again.

It took her the greatest difficulty not to smack him on the back of his head for acting so stupid all the time. "Are you _drunk_?" she asked sharply.

To be fair, she didn't even _want_ to know, but it sure would explain this weird situation.

Terra infatuatedly shook his head. "Of course not! Liquor isn't allowed here, remember? Jeez, and I thought for an instant that you were _smart_. Are _you_ having a bad day, or something, 'cause you look really tired, you know? You also have these huge bags under your eyes and your hair isn't as shiny as always," he noted, as he examined her more.

That was the limit for her. "Ugh! You're _impossible_, Terra!"

"Aaw, _thank_ you."

"That _wasn't_ a compliment!" she sneered.

Terra's face fell again. "Oh... You know, you're not being very nice to me, Aqua. I think you should appologise. That would be the right thing to d-"

Aqua rose up abruptly, looking pretty mad by now.

"Hey! Where are you going?"

She didn't answer him and was about to leave his bedroom when she noticed something from the corner of her eyes. She turned her head toward it. Two bottles were standing rather lonely on the desk; bottles of medicines. Being slightly curious by now, she walked towards it and picked it up. Something felt wrong about them, but she couldn't place what exactly it was. On one of the bottles was indicated that there were painkillers in it. The other one was filled with pills for migraine. Aqua frowned as she picked up the leaflet and started reading it, having a hunch of what had happened to Terra. And yes, there it was, under the general _Warning_ section. Leaflets didn't lie.

"Have you taken these two pills at the same time?" she asked and she sternly looked at him.

Terra thought about it for a short while and then nodded slowly. "Yeah... Why?"

"When?" she asked, tensed.

"Uh, dunno. Perhaps... twenty minutes ago? Or maybe even more. I really have no idea. Sorry."

This immediately explained his peculiar behavior of today.

She sighed, while facepalming. "Oh, you _idiot_! Don't you know what side effects it can have on you if you take them both at such a short amount of time? You should always read the small letters. It's for your own safety!"

"Side effects?" he asked, with a puzzled look on his face. He made it almost sound like he had never heard of those two words before. This was of no use. "_Joohoo?_ Spacing out again, you daydreamer? Care to enlighten me?" he asked.

"Never mind. Apparently, you don't."

"But what else was I supposed to do, huh?" he asked defiantly.

He got up from his bed and started walking toward her, a dangerous glint in his cobalt blue eyes.

"Well, why didn't you try any potions? Didn't they work?"

It took a while before he replied this time. "Ohw..."

Aqua looked at him again, fearing to hear the worst.

She didn't like the way he had said the word. "Ohw what?"

"I uh... haven't really thought about it... so... yeah," he admitted, scratching the back of his head, sheepishly.

"That is an "ohw," indeed," she retorted.

She ran her hand through her short lilac hair as she thought of what she could do best next. To be honest, there weren't many possibilities left. At least, not that she could think of. It wouldn't be an understatement if she said that she was clueless. The main important thing was that he shouldn't go outside like this, so he couldn't make any damage to the furniture or anything else around him... himself included, of course.

"Hey, Aqua?"

"Hmm?" she said, almost absent-mindedly, since she was still racking her brains for a suitable solution (but without any success so far).

"Was your father a terrorist?"

She whipped around so quickly this time that she almost twisted her neck. Honestly, where in the world had_ that_ suddenly come from?

Imagination surely was a strange thing, but at this point, he had made her curious. "No, why do you ask?"

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a tiny half-smirk. It made him almost look _cute_. She didn't like where her mind was drifting off to now, though.

"'Cause you're _da_ _bomb_!"

He put his arms in the air, looking happier than ever. Oh gosh, now it was serious. The guy had officially,_ completely_ lost his mind. This made Aqua sigh once again. This would be a long and tough day.

"Thanks for... pointing that out. I'm sure it can be of use someday... Now, could you please wait for me here? I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere else, okay?" she said, giving him a warning look to show him that she was being serious.

Because if he got out of the safe sanctuary that was called his bedroom, he would only be a danger for himself.

"_Ooh_... Having any wild plans for today?"

A small smirk touched his lips. The way he had said that made her blush once again.

"No, I'm afraid I don't have any _wild_ plans, Terra. I'm just going to get something for you, so you can be your old self again in no time. The sooner the better, actually. So if you'll excuse me..."

The sooner he was back to normal, the better it was for everyone. She didn't want to admit it, but he surely was scaring her a little now with his random dialogues. She was almost certain that a potion would help here too.

She was already out the door, when he cried after her, "okay. Just don't let me wait too long, 'cause I hate waiting!"

She had heard what he had said, though, and she shook her head, smiling a little. "Believe me, I've already find that out myself," she said to nobody in particular.

Aqua tried not to be seen by anyone, especially not the Master, because that could lead to rather awkward questions. When she had found what she wanted, she went back to Terra's bedroom again, where something new had happened. Terra lay in his bed, all curled up into a tiny ball and with his eyes closed. His chest went up and down in a slow and steady rythm. He slept like a baby. Aqua smiled. That was something she didn't see that often. She put the potion down on the nightstand. Maybe sleep would help him here, too.

She was about to leave the room again to let him have his rest, when an exellent idea struck her mind. Terra wouldn't mind it if she gave him a tiny metamorphosis, right? Just enough to let him see the difference. This was payback for all those times that he had been troublesome to her (which was a lot). She only needed some make up and a photo camera, so she could always blackmail him if she needed to.

* * *

_**~ Later that same day... ~**_

Terra yawned and stretched, letting his bones creak in a way that probably would've made Aqua wince. The brunet male had to admit that he had slept really well for these past few hours, but he was still feeling quite tired. That would be because of today's training, it had been killing, as always. Fortunately, his head-ache had subsided, thanks to the useful nap. He had recently been increasingly affected by it. It had to be the stress, or something like that.

His gaze lazily slid to the clock on the opposite wall. It was almost half past six. Dinner should be ready by now, he thought. And today was Aqua's turn to cook as well, so whatever she was cooking, he knew that it was something promising. He could already smell something delicious, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was yet. He had never been good at such things in which he had to guess. Scratching the back of his head, he got up, almost knocking away the small bottle of potion. He caught it right in time and looked at it, frowning. Wait a minute, where had this come from? He always kept his potions in his closet... Just great, apparently, now he was also suffering from forgetfulness. Could this day get any worse? With his hand, he brought his hair a little in model to make it look more presentable. Sighing lightly, he got up out of his bed and walked to the kitchen downstairs.

As soon as he arrived there, the wonderful smell of macaroni bolognaise greeted him. He truly loved Italian food, especially when it was made by Aqua, the only one here who knew how to cook great meals in a very short amount of time. Inhaling deeply, he realized that he was more hungry than he had thought at first. Then again, who wouldn't be when he would smell something like this? He saw that Aqua was still busy with cooking, while Ven sat on a chair close to her and spoke enthusiastically about some exciting topic. Knowing him, it probably had to do something with fighting and speed. Silently leaning against the wall, Terra decided not to say anything to announce his presence, but just to listen to their conversation, without them knowing it. Who knew, perhaps he would catch something interesting this way. Something that wasn't meant for his ears.

"You still haven't answered my question, though, Aqua," Ven noted, obviously oblivious to Terra's presence.

Aqua said nothing in response and kept doing her work.

Ven unconciously trummed a fast beat with his fingertips on the wooden surface of the table. "You know, I'm really wondering what Terra will think of all this," he started.

Terra perked his ears. He turned his head towards them and looked at the back of their heads. Ven's blond spikes were messier than ever, - maybe he had run his hand through his hair again, without being aware of it himself - but Aqua's lilac hair looked neatly, which was the exact opposite of the enthousiastic boy. They way it shone caught the brunet's attention and soon enough, he found himself wondering how many times a day she would comb them to keep them this perfect.

"I'm sure he'll find it _very_ interesting that you've been into his room today, twice! And I'm not even talking about Master. What will he say if he finds out, huh?"

There was a big silence, again, in which only the sauce pan simmered lightly. Terra quirked a dark eyebrow, seeing how her back had tensed slightly at that comment. That comfirmed Ven's accusions. He had been right. So she had been to his room? Twice even? The question was, why? As far as he knew, he hadn't borrowed anything from her (or vice versa), so the chance that she wanted something back that was still inside his bedroom was nihil. When had all this happened, anyway? How came he hadn't noticed anything at all? Was he really suffering from forgetfulness, then or had she been so quiet that she hadn't woken him up at all?

"Aquaaa!" Ven whined, dramatically, when she didn't say anything in return.

Any normal person would've smacked Ven by now (at least he would), or emptied the contents of the saucepan over his head, but Terra knew that Aqua would never do that. She had always had a soft spot for younger guys like Ven. She had even admitted more than once that she thought that the boy was adorable. The brunet teen personally thought that she was completely nuts, because there was nothing adorable about Ven. He was incredibly _annoying_, not cute or anything like that. Aqua really was weird sometimes.

"Oh, Ven, could you please go tell him that dinner's ready? I've got my hands pretty full here, as you can see."

Ven looked at her for a short moment, his head tilted, as if he actually wanted to say 'no' to her, but in the end, he didn't object. Maybe he didn't dare, knowing Aqua.

"Okido. I'll be right back!"

He got up and turned around in one quick move, just to see Terra standing there with his arms crossed. Ven's cerulean eyes immediately got as big as saucers and his mouth dropped open in utmost terror, his jaw practically hitting the floor.

Terra quirked an eyebrow at this sight. "Hi," he said dryly, in a very Terra-like way. Ven, however, didn't seem to be able to say something back to him. He opened his mouth several times, like a fish on the surface, but he closed it again when he couldn't form the words he wanted to use, so Terra decided here to fill in the silence. "Is there something wrong?"

Stupid question. But then again, he was Master of the Obvious.

"Y-you... your_ face!_" Ven managed to say, looking quite shell-shocked, while pointing at Terra with a quivering index finger.

Strangely enough, Aqua didn't bother to look at what Ven was talking about. Terra had expected her to immediately turn around to see it herself. He assumed it wasn't that interesting for her. Or maybe she was afraid that their dinner would burn if she did. Either way, he didn't really care at the moment.

Terra quirked his other eyebrow as well. "What's with my face? I mean, I know I'm _handsome_, but it shouldn't be _that_ mindblowing for a guy. That's creepy, Ven."

"N-no... Mirror..."

Ven was obviously still too shocked to say anything else, let alone to form coherent sentences. Wait, was it really_ that _bad? Was he having a bad hair-day? But he couldn't have that. Terra decided to go look for the mirror in the hallway to find out the damage, or just to be sure what this was going about. He walked toward it, half expecting to see something horrible he wouldn't forget soon (like a giant spider, or something). His suspicions to find something horrible didn't let him down, though. His mouth dropped open when he saw his reflection in the mirror. No, actually, that wasn't him anymore. This was... so_ bad_! Red lipstick, blue eyeshadow, mascara... heck, it was all smeared on his face! What had he honestly been _doing_ in his sleep?

Wait a second, he couldn't have done _that_. He had no experience to make everything look so perfect and make straight lines instead of weird squiggles. He turned again.

His face had become red, but not because of the little rouge that was applied so neatly on his cheeks. "Who... did this?" he asked with a soft, but dangerous voice.

First, he looked at Ven (as murderously as he could), who hastilly shook his head. Then there was only one person who had done this, because Master Eraqus still had his morals. Of course. He should have known _that_. His glance rested on Aqua's back, who had noticed the sudden silence. She slowly turned around to face him. Her face stood neutral, almost innocent, which was very strange. He didn't buy that, though. She was the only one who sometimes used... those stuff.

"Why," he growled, almost slaughterously.

It wasn't a question, but more a demand. Ven looked from Terra to Aqua and then back to Terra again, over and over again, almost as though he was watching a pingpong match.

"Well, maybe if you didn't take two different medicines at the same time, you would have been enough _down to earth_ to notice what rubbish you were saying, so I wouldn't have to take revenge for everything you did to me so far. And believe me, the flirting hadn't been the worst of it all. Besides, everyone always thinks you have a girly name, so I thought I might as well show the more feminine features of you," she explained with a sing-song voice, smiling sickingly sweet. "And to be honest fair with you, I think it suits you. The only thing that's missing, though, is a nice, pink dress. Oh, and a better hair style, of course, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you that to make you realize."

"Why you..."

With great difficulty, he managed not to get so mad that he wouldn't be able to control himself anymore, making fists of his hands. Killing her in front of Ven wasn't such a good idea, either. Even his eyes seemed to change from color for a short moment; they had become a shade of orange-ish blue.

Wait a second, he had_ flirted_ with her? Why didn't he remember that?

He was partly glad that he didn't, but his cheeks still reddened even more. "You'd better watch out from now on, 'cause you certainly _will_ pay for this!" he said in a low voice.

Aqua snorted and rolled her clear blue eyes, not taking him serious in the least. For the first time, they had switched roles. The tables had turned and she would lie if she said that she didn't love that.

"Oh really now? What do you want to do then? Paint my nails?"

He narrowed his eyes until his long eyelashes almost hid the greyish-blue of his eyes and he started glaring daggers at her, before hurriedly walking off with a huff, taking big steps.

"Terra, where are you going?" Ven cried timidly, not liking the tension in the room at all.

"Wash my face. And my name is NOT girly, thank you very much!"

"That's what _you're_ thinking," Aqua noted quietly.

She waited until he had disappeared and then fell into uncontrollable fits of laughter, holding the table tightly to keep herself from falling over.

"That wasn't funny, you know," Ven remarked, but he looked like he was about to burst out laughter, too. "And I really would sleep with one eye open tonight if I were you. Trust me, he was serious about that."

Aqua just shook her head dismissively. "Terra isn't _that_ dangerous. Besides, he deserved that. Don't be afraid, Ven. I can handle him with one finger on my back."

"Yeah, just like today's sparring match you mean?" Ven noted.

Aqua grimaced at that. Why did everyone have to keep reminding her of that little embarrassing incident all the friggin' time? Honestly, how was she supposed to forget about it if nobody would let her? There seemed to be one right way to deal with that, though and that was _exactly_ what she was going to do. She had to show who was the boss here.

"Do _you_ want to sleep with one eye open tonight?" she threatened, pointing at him.

"Sorry," Ven added hastilly, looking away.

Aqua smiled sweetly again. "That's okay, Ven. You know, I'm wondering how long it will take him to realize that I've used permanent mascara on him."

She giggled then, something she hadn't done in quite a while. It was a nice, tinkeling voice, like those sweet melodies that one heard when they opened a music box.

"Um... what exactly does that mean?" Ven questioned, a confused frown on his face.

She had almost forgotten that she was the only one here who knew something about make-up, which was good in this case. "It means that it certainly will take a few months to get that off of his face. He should be thankful that it only was the mascara that was permanent and not the lipstick and eyeliner. I couldn't do that to him."

Her question was answered when she heard a shrill cry, followed by a furious, "AQUAAAAH!"

It was kind of needless to say that that yell belonged to Terra.

"Uh oh. Too late," she said. "Oh well. Can't change that now, right? Dinner's ready. I think it's the best if _you_ told him that. He probably won't attack you. Master has left early, so we're all alone today."

And with that, she turned around resolutely and started looking for plates in the cabinets, silently wondering what the future will bring for her.

* * *

**A/N: And that's how the prankwar started... I had some fun writing this piece, although I have no idea what exacly can happen when you take in painkillers and pills for migraine at the same time, so I admit, that was kinda made up a bit. And I'm not that good at writing humor, which you'll certainly notice in the following chapters. At least I have a new challenge now. I hope you had as much as fun reading it.**** Reviews are kindly appreciated, as always! ;) Hmm, this made another idea pop into my head. I might start a series of one-shots, which will show the more immature side of the Keyblade apprentices, that is, if anyone's interested. I just hope I can come up with enough pranks... It just won't happen in at least two weeks, because I'll have tests which will all be a part of my schoolexams. Oh and Terra kinda reminds me of Leon from KH. Is that just me?**


	2. Poison

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this chapter, which may contain some BBS spoilers, but not big ones. This chapter may be a bit on the innocent and short side, but it will cause Aqua's evil actions in the next chapter. Enjoy reading. ^.^**

**Special thanks: Karma's Slave, BloodyAphrodite, XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, Aqua Azul, Aqua StormXIV and BlackKingdomKey2013**

* * *

_~ Terra sighed deeply. "Women. Living with them is almost impossible, but without them, life is definitely no fun anymore." ~_

* * *

Aqua sighed, tiredly. Normally, Mondays were the worst day of the week. Today, however, was even worse than usual. _Much_ worse. Why, one might wonder. Well, that was quite easy to explain, for not only had the beautiful and not to mention far too _short_ weekend spontaneously come to an end, so that they had to continue with their rigorous training scheme again, while they were suffering from the lack of sleep, but she also had lost another exciting sparring match with Terra. Again, and that within a week. That was probably a personal record. No, she didn't want to hear any comments about that, but it was on Mondays like this one that she often became so incredibly grumpy.

She was tired, - no, scratch that, _exhausted!_ - she was hungry, she was sweating terribly and she didn't feel quite well, either. What was also strange, was that there had already passed a week since her little prank that involved both Terra and make up, without Terra doing something back to her, in an attempt to avenge himself. It would happen soon enough, though. She was sure of that, so she had to watch out for him.

Once Master Eraqus had (finally!) announced that they had finished their training for that day, Aqua went inside directly, following Ven to the comfortable and inviting sofa. She collapsed there in a pathetic heap, not bothering to look at least a little presentable. Ven sat down on a beanbag near her, holding his head in his hands. The blue-haired young woman decided that showering would come later, when she could finally stand for more than ten seconds on her legs without falling thereafter. From where she was sitting, she had a good view on how the orange and reddish sunlight that was on the white floor, slowly crept toward her, trying to reach her and grab her legs. In a few hours, the sun would set, just to rise again the next day. Then everything would start all over. This was probably what people meant with "The Circle of Life." Well, it was stupid.

She glanced over at Ven, to look if he was still all right. The sunlight made the color of Ven's hair turn from blond into a light yellowish-orange. It kind of suited him. She closed her eyes to eliminate the bright sunlight, which was giving her a headache. Now, all she saw was a bordeau red. In her fatigue, she hadn't even noticed that Terra quietly tiptoed to her, until she suddenly, for an unknown reason, opened her eyes and saw a glass with some orange substance, dancing in front of her eyes. She looked up slowly, from the glass to the person who was holding it; a rather muscular arm, which was connected with an even more muscular torso. Terra. She could've known that. She waited until he would comment on how bad she actually was at fighting. That comment didn't come, though.

"Freshly squeezed orange juice, a pretty effective energyboost, especially made for you, by me," he explained, pointing at himself with his free hand.

Aqua kept looking at him in pure astonishment, while she hesitantly took the glass from him. She looked at it, unable to decide what to do with it.

He smiled kindly at her, cocking his head slightly to the side. "Hey, don't give me that look. I'm not always a heartless bastard, if that's what you're thinking, which I actually hope you don't. I think often enough about your health, so don't look like this is the first time I do something nice for you."

Aqua rolled her eyes and glanced up at him suspiciously, having the feeling that he was lying. His tone of voice was slightly different, too, almost as if he had something to hide. She wouldn't be too surprised if he did. After all, this was _Terra_ they were talking about.

"Did you put something in the drink? Poison, or maybe a mixure of painkillers and pills for migraine?"

Now it was Terra's turn to roll his eyes. "Of course I didn't put _poison_ in your cup! How could you possibly think that of me? Don't be so suspicious all the time! Otherwise, this will _really_ be the last time I do something for you and I mean it. Besides, that doesn't suit you, Aqua."

She sighed. It wasn't _that_ strange that she was so suspicious these days. She shrugged. Apparently, this time it had been all for nothing. One couldn't be careful enough, though.

She smiled appologetically at him. "I'm sorry, Terra. Thanks for being such a gentleman, then. I really appreciate it."

To say that the brunet was surprised at this sudden change of attitude, was the understatement of the year.

he scratched the back of his head, almost sheepishly. "Oh, it's okay and you're _very_ welcome."

She took a huge gulp of the tasty cool drink and was about to swallow it, when she suddenly noticed on what words he had put the emphasis. When she saw that amused look on his face, too, her suspicions were pretty much confirmed by Terra himself.

"Were you still planning to swallow that sometime today?" Terra asked, with a chesire grin. "You look quite funny now with those puffed cheeks."

This caught even Ven's attention, who thus far had acted like he was a dead zombie.

The spiky-haired boy looked at their direction to see what the oldest apprentice was talking about. "Aqua, Terra's ri-"

With all the strength that she had the blue-haired mage sprayed all the liquid that was in her mouth back outside, just at the unfortunate time that Ven had decided to slightly bend over to her. The painful result was that he got it all straight in his face.

She gasped for breath, startled at what she had _accidentally_ done to him. "Ven! I'm _so_ sorry! I didn't mean to..." Aqua started. "Ven?"

Ven didn't respond, though. He just sat there, with his cerulean eyes widened from shock.

"Um, Ven? You have something yellowish on your face. Seriously. It looks a little like... vomit," Terra remarked with a deadly serious voice.

"In case you didn't know yet; I'm fully aware of that. Thanks for embracing it," Ven then replied, dryly, seemed to wake up from his shell-shock.

"You're welcome, Vennie-boy. Well, you sure know how to handle things, Aqua. Just look what you've done to him, the poor guy. Even he didn't deserve that," the oldest of them noted, admonishing.

This was the limit for her. "How _DARE_ you to put something in _my_ drink? Had I been allergic to it, I would've dropped _dead_ by now! Do you realize what kind of danger you could've put me in? I guess you don't even care what happens to me, huh? " she screamed, seething.

Terra then put his hands in the air, defensively. "Hey, hey, hey. Just wait a minute! Before you start to accuse me of the most stupid things I've ever heard in my whole life, I'd like to point out that it seems quite impossible that you are allergic to lemon syrup, because you've put it yourself often enough in your drinking. I've seen it with my own eyes, in case you were wondering. And you don't have to shout like that. As I said earlier, sometimes, especially when you start acting like this, I'm really worried about your health. More than you seem to realize, at least."

"Yes, but you-" She stopped in mid-sentence and blinked her eyes dumbfoundedly when she realized what he just had said. "What?"

"Wait, you don't seriously believe that I'm such a jerk that I would put something in your drink, do you? That would be so low, which makes me wonder... Has it ever passed your mind that perhaps _I_ might be allergic to make-up?" he calmly asked.

"Huh? But that's- I mean..." she stuttered, starting to blush madly. "But you said you hadn't put _poison_ in my cup, emphasizing that word. You didn't say anything bout those other things."

Terra raised a dark eyebrow. "Well, I didn't put any _poison_ in your drink, only _lemon syrup _for an extra fresh taste. Geez, Aqua. Why do you have to make everything so damn _difficult_?"

At this point it took her the greatest effort not to throw the rest of the glass of juice in his face, because of his stupid behavior.

She quickly put the glass down on the coffee table, before she would change her mind, and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "Because... you know what? Never mind, actually! I'm not gonna argue with you about that. I won't waste my energy to you, I'm going to go take a shower."

With a jerk, she stood up from her seat, so quick that she almost lost her balance. Fortunately, she still managed to stay upright.

"Then I'm gonna go wash this _stuff_ off of my face," Ven muttered.

"Good luck, VenVen!" Terra said.

"Shut up!" the blond retorted. As he walked past Aqua, she could hear just a few words that sounded suspiciously much like, "Man, what did I do to deserve this?"

She immediately started to feel bad for the boy. That was why she decided to make it up to poor Ven, as soon as she had finished showering, even though it was obviously all Terra's fault. Speaking about the 'Mother of the Devil'...

"You'll pay for this, Terra, even if that's the last thing I'll ever do."

She had said it softly, but Terra had heard her loud and clear.

He quirked an eyebrow. "For what exactly, if I may ask? Because I behaved like a gentleman towards you and I brought you a drink when you looked to tired to even stand up on your own feet? You really are hard to please, you know that?"

"You know what I mean," she retorted.

"Yeah, I think I do, 'cause I was the one who decided to spill everything on poor Ven's face just to see what happens, right? You know, you really should trust people more often. It's probably hard to believe, but not everyone's as poisoned as you."

Aqua simply ignored him and walked out of the room with a huff, before she wouldn't be able to stop herself from throwing random, heavy things at Terra, for being such an ass all the friggin' time.

Terra sighed deeply. "Women. Living with them is almost impossible, but without them, life is definitely no fun anymore. I mean, who should I tease then?" A small smirk appeared on his lips, while he lay back on the couch slowly. "My dear young lady, this is just the beginning of the great battle."

Hey, a great battle was something she was waiting for, anyway, he reasoned. So why disappointing her?

* * *

Once Aqua felt the warm water fall down on her bare shoulders in large jets, like a waterfall, she calmed down a bit. She felt how all her tensed muscles relaxed ever so slowly. This was just what she'd needed this whole day. She always got calmer of a long, hot shower. But then again, who didn't? Almost absent-mindedly, she picked up her shampoo and opened the lid of the bottle. Suddenly she got a brilliant idea, if she said so herself. Terra would be so dead when she would be finished with him, tomorrow! Hah, he would probably just want to pull his own hair from his head. Maybe even literally. She spontaneously felt like singing in the shower, so she started doing that, too.

Meanwhile, Terra had decided to go to his room, too. When he walked past the locked bathroom, he heard her singing. Surprised, he stopped walking. This could mean one thing: she was in a good mood again. He wondered why she was suddenly so happy. There was no reason to, as far as he knew. It sure had nothing to do with an act of revenge, right? He would be find out soon enough, even though he rather wouldn't. He was sure of one thing, though. Two, actually. One: Aqua had a great voice. She was the best singer he'd ever met. The second thing he knew for sure was that girls were really too strange for words and he was pretty sure that he wasn't the only one who thought that. One moment they looked like they wanted to kill you, while the next moment they were singing a song, seeming to be happier than ever for no apparent reason...

Maybe it was a good idea for him to watch out for her for the following days.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading this! =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Chapter 3 will be up soon... or so I hope. That last part was a hint of the following prank. Does anyone know what the prank will be? Please review, it makes me happy! :D**


	3. A Colorful Day

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story. Wow, two updates in one day? I'm on a roll! It's just to celebrate that I don't have any exams for this year. At last! :D Now on with the story. Enjoy reading!**

**Thanks: Karma's Slave, BloodyAphrodite, Aqua Azul, Sovoreign Beta, Mr. kurosaki09 and Metempsychosis000**

* * *

_~ "You'd better be very careful with everything you now do from now on, 'cause you're going down soon and I swear I'll follow you around and harass you until you come to me on your knees, begging for forgiveness, which you, by the way, won't get this time." ~_

* * *

The bright sunlight that seeped quite sneakily through the surreal light-blue colored curtains of Aqua's bedroom indicated that a new day was dawning. It was time to get out of bed and take a shower. She didn't even need her alarm clock to wake up today, which was quite a miracle. For the first time in days, or maybe even weeks, she didn't mind at all to get up this early in the morning. She had hardly been able to fall asleep the previous night, though. She had been so excited! She still was so for that matter. Yes, she did have a presumption that what she was about to do was rather childish, but what else could she do? She was talking about Terra here, for crying out loud! She couldn't let him win all this, right? She needed to teach him a lesson he wouldn't forget soon, to show him how strong she was. It was therefore a small miracle that she didn't feel tired today, in the least.

Aqua showered first every day, while Terra always used the bathroom after Aqua and Ven, who was, as always, the fastest of the group. He was always finished within five minutes, taken a shower and already dressed. How he managed to do that, was for both Terra and Aqua still one of life's little mysteries.

Aqua had done all her work last night, secretly of course, otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise anymore. After everyone had been gone to bed and after she had been certain that everyone had fallen asleep and wouldn't suddenly walk in on her, she had entered the main bathroom and had locked the door behind her. Then, she had put the paint she had bought that very same day, in one of Terra's empty bottles of shampoo, so he would use it the next day in his obliviousness, thinking that it was just his own shampoo. She hoped very much that he wouldn't notice the difference in the odors, because that was pretty much the only think that could go wrong in her master plan.

But hey, he was a boy. He wouldn't notice nor care for a change of odor in his shampoo, for he had better things to do. Besides, he had proved last year how inattentive he could be at times. It had certainly lasted two whole days before he had noticed that the decorations of the Christmas tree were replaced by other decorations by Aqua herself. When he had finally found out about the difference, he had insisted that he wasn't watching at such trivial things (Something inside her told her that he would do it from now on. Or maybe not, 'cause the saying was that old habits died hard, right? With guys like Terra, one was never sure about anything.) It had been a lame excuse, but Aqua hadn't teased him about it... too much.

* * *

Aqua was in her own bedroom again. She had rather quickly towel-dried her hair and now, she was waiting until Terra was finally finished with showering. That would take some time, though, seeing that the water just had started flowing; a sign that he had just started with taking a shower. So she had to wait ten more minutes. She couldn't wait to see that look on his face as soon as he would see his own hair. She had her camera in her hand already and the anticipation was seriously almost _killing_ her right then and there. At that moment, it struck her that maybe he hadn't seen that shampoo bottle at all and had opened a new shampoo bottle instead, because he was so weird and incooperative at times, be it conciously or not. She was hesitating on what to do next. Should she simply enter the bathroom and secretly put the bottle, her masterpiece of the week, on the bathtub somehow, or should she just wait and see what would happen next?

Eventually, she decided to go for the first idea, only so she could be absolutely sure that the prank was working. Besides, one should always be on the safe side if that person really wanted to succeed in something, _anything_.

No sooner said than done, she stood up from her bed once again and opened her bedroom's door. She fervently hoped that she wouldn't meet Ven or Master Eraqus at this time, since that would only cause her more explanation and an awkward situation than needed. She took several deep breaths to calm herself in front of the bathroom door, before she opened the door and quietly slipped inside. Terra didn't seem to notice the sudden intruder, which was good. It was quite damp in the bathroom. She felt how the damp clung to herself and her clothes as a kind of extra layer of skin. Speak about using hot water, she thought. Fortunately, there was a blue curtain with white and yellow flowers on it between them, which made it impossible for Terra to see her. That automatically meant that she couldn't see what Terra was doing, either. Well, thank heavens she couldn't, because... erm, well, _you know_.

She looked around but didn't have to look that long to find the wanted shampoo bottle. Exactly what she had thought, he hadn't even seen the thing. Being almost 24/7 with Terra for the past years had practically made it almost possible for her to read his mind. Figuratively speaking, of course. She picked it up and thought of what would be the most unobtrusive way to place this in his sight. Unfortunately, her mind was letting her down at the moment.

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted when she heard the brunet male mutter in an annoyed voice, "Damn it, stupid shampoo," just loud enough for her to understand.

Before she knew what she was doing, she shoved the bottle of shampoo through the narrow opening of the curtain and felt how he took it from her. "Thanks," he said, almost wearily.

"You're welcome, Terra," she answered, cheerfully, while trying to hold in her giggles.

With a great effort, she barely avoided bursting into laughter. He really _was_ slow today. Perhaps it was because he had just woken up, or something.

_"Huh?"_

She could practically hear the sheer surprise leaping in his deep voice. Suddenly, his head came out behind the curtain and his eyes cobalt-colored eyes pierced almost immediately into her cerulean ones. For the first time ever, his hair was flat and stuck around his face, which made him almost look unrecognizable. He looked very different, yet still very handsome. Aqua's gaze slid involuntarily (or perhaps unconsciously?) to his rather muscular, slightly tanned and bare shouders. She forced herself to look him in the eyes again and hoped that he hadn't noticed anything. At once, she felt how a rosy blush slowly started to creep up her face.

"Aqua? What are _you_ doing here?" he asked, rather astonished to catch her in the bathroom.

She shrugged, not knowing what else to do. Telling the truth wasn't an option today.

She tried to come up with a good excuse. "I was just... you know."

"No, I don't," he said, still just as surprised, as he kept watching her.

"Um... how do I say this? I lost my hairbrush and I thought it was here. Apparently, it's not. So I'm leaving again. Bye."

She saw how his eyebrows went up in disbelief. It made her wonder, had she said something stupid? She gave it a quick afterthought and almost facepalmed at the result.

"And how did you know that my shampoo wasn't here, with me, huh?" he continued with his interrogation.

"I didn't. I just heard you mumble something about your shampoo when I got in, so I thought you had forgotten it and gave it to you. That's all."

She tried to look as innocent as possible, but didn't know if she had succeeded or not. By the looks of it, she did, because Terra then muttered, "Sounds... fair enough."

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm really going now. I have to find my hairbrush."

"Go ahead. I'm not stopping you," came the simple reply, as the tiniest smirk made its way onto his face.

Aqua rolled her eyes, not bothering to give him a smart remark. Not that she had the chance, because at that moment, his head disappeared behind the curtain again. Aqua quickly walked out of the bathroom. When she had shut the door behind her, Terra uttered a cry. Aqua laughed at the high-pitched sound he had created.

"_AQUA!"_

She opened the door again, grinning a little bit. "Sorry. I just couldn't resist it. Besides, this was because of the juice from yesterday. You deserved it."

He showed his face once again from behind the curtain. His eyes were squeezed into narrow slits, making it only possible for her to see the dark cobalt color of his eyes and not the whites themselves. Her heart skipped a beat.

"What? That was _not_ funny! Besides, I haven't done anything to you yet! You just wait till I'm done. I'll show you what _you_ deserve," he threatened, heatedly.

"We'll see, Terra," she replied with a sing-song voice. With a smile on her lips and a snap of her fingers, she changed the temperature of the water as it was before, almost steaming hot. "In fact, this was just the beginning, Terra. Playtime is now officially over," she said softly to herself as she walked down the stairs toward the kitchen.

* * *

When Aqua arrived in the kitchen, she saw that Ven was already awake. He was having breakfast at his usual topspeed.

"Good morning, Ven!" she cried, happier than ever.

Ven looked up and grinned at her, as if he had forgotten the incident that had happened yesterday instantly. His eyes twinkled more than they did yesterday, which was a good sign.

It showed that he was in a good mood. Since his mouth was still full, he made only one sound, that sounded much like, "Hi."

"Where's Master Eraqus?" she asked, as she slid on the chair near the table for breakfast.

This time, Ven waited until his mouth was empty before he answered properly, "He's gone. He waits outside for us, until we're done with breakfast... and showering."

"Oh. Okay. Could you pass me the peanut butter, please?"

"Mhmm." Ven handed her what she wanted and swallowed his last bite, before asking, "Where's Terra? Isn't he done showering yet?"

Aqua shook her head, smiling a little. "Nope, I'm afraid he's not."

Ven sighed deeply. "Man! One would expect that you're the one who takes the longest time in the bathroom, but I guess Terra's surpassed us all."

Aqua nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it."

She wondered how long exactly it would take him before he found out that-

"AQUAAH!"

Never mind already, by the looks of it, the damage was done. She heard how someone pounded down the stairs, quite loudly. It was Terra, without a doubt. And he was flatout furious, also without a doubt.

"Oh boy, what have you done now? Quick, hide all the knives and the can of juice, 'cause I have a terrible feeling that today's not gonna end well for me. I'm going to be the victim of your childish behavior, again!" Ven hissed irritably.

Aqua didn't have much time to say something back, as he shot from the table and hid all the specifications. He put the can of juice quickly in the refrigerator, especially for his own safety, because he had obviously not forgotten the juice-incident. Then, the brown-haired teen appeared in the kitchen... but he had now no longer brown hair. It was pink. Soft, baby pink. It looked weird on him, because his eyebrows were still dark brown. To put it rather mildly, Ven's eyes bulged from their sockets, probably out of shock at seeing this sudden change on the oldest disciple of the Keyblade. Terra hadn't even bothered to get dressed, but only got a towel around his waist. This caused Aqua to look at his musclular chest again, blushing slightly.

Terra's murderous look in his eyes - which again were thin slits, so thin that his eyelashes almost seemed glued together - betrayed his dangerous mood. "You!" Terra said angrily.

His voice trembled with anger as he pointed to Aqua.

"Yes, me," she answered calmly. "The name's Aqua, remember?"

That was a bad move of hers, but she realized it far too late.

"You'd better be _very_ careful with everything you now do from now on, 'cause you're going down soon and I _swear_ I'll follow you around and harass you until you come to me on your knees, begging for forgiveness, which, by the way, you won't get this time."

After this, he turned around and strode out of the room, holding his towel in place, in case it would fall off and leave nothing of his dignity anymore.

"Skipping breakfast is very bad for you, you know!" she called after him, but he never came back and shut his bedroom door with a loud _BANG!_ behind him.

She turned to Ven, who currently was still standing in the farthest corner of the kitchen, waiting. "Oh, isn't he just a little ray of sunshine? You can come back to the table, Ven. The coast is clear." Ven was staring at her in a peculiar way. "_What?_" she asked.

"You just asked for your own death, aren't you aware of that?"

Aqua rolled her eyes as a response. "Oh please, Ven, don't be such a drama queen all the time. What can possibly happen? What's he gonna do? Paint me all blue as a revenge? Or maybe green?"

"Maybe it's the best for me if I keep myself away from you two, until you've stopped this nonsense. Better be safe than sorry, right? Well, I'm going to Master Eraqus. See ya."

He walked out of the kitchen and left Aqua to be all alone. Maybe Ven was right after all. Maybe she should worry some more about what Terra had planned for her in the near future. But man, those muscles. They were so _distracting_... She shook her head to clear her thoughts. What was _wrong _with her, honestly?

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for taking the time to read this! =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ ****Reviews are highly appreciated! :) I don't know if the next chapter will be up soon or not, because I have so many ideas. I can only get them out of my mind by writing them down... I already have an idea for the next chapter, though. And I think it'll be a short one. The hint of the next prank will be the title of the next chapter: "Poor Eyesight." I know it's kinda vague, but what do you think it'll be about?**


	4. Poor Eyesight

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes before KH BBS. I changed something in the previous chapter; when Terra comes down into the kitchen (with pink hair. At first I'd wanted to use the color green, but then I realized that this was probably more fun), he only wears a towel now. I thought that would be funnier than fully dressed. Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, Sovoreign Beta, BloodyAphrodite, Karma's Slave, CrimsonDarkness 0013, MrKurosaki09, XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, Wolfsbane706, Xenometem, DarkangelGuard77 and The Twilight Soldier **

* * *

_~ Somehow, Terra always managed to annoy the heck out of her. ~_

* * *

After Terra marched into the kitchen for the second time yesterday, - thank god now fully dressed, otherwise she wouldn't be sure if she could keep her attention to what he would say - he demanded that Aqua changed his hair back to how it was before, immediately. Aqua, however, had smiled graciously and patiently explained him that he had to wait at least three days to dye it again, because it wasn't healthy for his hair; it could break and he would literally have no hair left on his head to dye.

"Unless that's what you want, of course," the blue-haired young woman had added quickly afterwards, to which he hadn't replied. "I'll take that as a 'no,' then."

She had commented that she had expected that he wouldn't know such important things and then she had asked him once again if that was what he wanted to do to his hair and he had looked at her very angrily, before marching out of the room again, without saying another word to her. Of course it had been inevitable that Master Eraqus had also seen his new hair color. He had given her detentions for her "immature action," but according to her, it had been all _so_ worth it, even if that had meant that her reputation wasn't that spotless now. She would never forget that look he had on his face when he found out about his hair. The very same went for how muscular he actually was. Or course, she could've known that already, because his arms were muscular too, but still. She had never seen such a torso before... Wait, where had that last thought come from? She blushed and shook her head to get it clear again, slightly dazed.

She still wasn't able to ban that one picture of Terra from her mind, though, in which he was only clad in a white towel. "What's wrong with me?" she whispered, utterly confused.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by Ven, who entered the library quietly and walked toward her. Aqua looked up from the book she was reading, or rather, trying to, when she heard his soft footsteps, which sounded lighter than Terra's, so she was safe... at least, for now.

She smiled when she saw who it was. "Hey, Ven," she greeted him.

"Hi."

He took place in the chair opposite of hers and looked at her. If the blue-haired young woman looked more closely, she could her own reflection in the cerulean depths of his eyes. He seemed to have something on his mind, though, which worried her slightly.

She truly hated seeing him like this, almost lost. "Hey, is there something wrong? Are you alright? Do you feel ill? Is Terra being annoying to you agai-"

Ven gently took Aqua's hand, which she had laid on his forehead to check his temperature, just in case he really was sick, and placed it on the table that was in between them, before interrupting her. "No, Terra's never annoying to me. I only came here to ask you if you've finally learned your lesson. I'm telling you, Aqua, you really should stop with this...this _nonsense_ before it's too late, before you can't stop yourself anymore and those pranks get worse and worse and people get hurt from it!"

Aqua looked at Ven as if he had just shamelessly slapped her in her face, twice.

She honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Hey, whose side are you on?" she cried, obviously offended.

"I won't choose a side this time. I want to stay out of this," he replied, giving her a knowing look.

She huffed. "Fine, but if you think I'll let Terra win this easily, then I have to tell you that you're wrong. I've just started and I know very well how far I can go with this before things get bad."

Ven snorted incredulously. "Yeah, and that's why Master Eraqus punished you for dying Terra's hair pink, right?"

Aqua blushed a deep shade of scarlet at the direct attack. "Well, it was definitely worth it. I just _so_ can't take it that he's always so... so..."

She was searching for the right words to finish her sentence, but didn't seem to find it. As far as she knew, that word didn't exist.

"So cocky?" Ven opted, trying to help.

"Um... yeah, that too. And so arrogant and annoying and stupid and careless and... well, you know."

Ven sighed wearily. "I know how he sometimes can be, especially in front of girls, but-"

Aqua interrupted him, knowing that he still would defend Terra. His voice gave him away.

"No ifs and buts, Ven. You can't change my mind, so don't even bother anymore. Someone has to show that guy-"

This time, Aqua was interrupted by a distant voice that called her name. _"Hey Aqua! Come overhere! You have to see this!"_

It was needless to say that this voice belonged to nobody else than Terra. Well, she didn't even think about listening to him. It wouldn't cause anything good, anyway.

_"Aqua, are you deaf?"_

Aqua growled under her breath. Somehow, Terra always managed to annoy the heck out of her. It must be a rare talent of him.

"Did you just hear that?" she cried, indignantly. "Now he thinks he can command me just like that! You think it's fair just to let him be? Well, I don't think so!"

_"Aqua, I'm in the livingroom. Come quick, please, otherwise you'll miss all the fun!"_

Please? Had he really just said that? Well, that changed everything. Maybe he had changed after all. Perhaps she should give him a chance only this time, because maybe she was a little too hard for him sometimes. Aqua got up from her seat and started to walk away.

"Aqua, where are you going?" Ven asked, curiously.

"To Terra. He seems to have found something pretty awesome. Let's go check it out."

He gave her a dumbfounded look. "_Huh?_ But you just said-"

"I know what I said, but he said 'please.' That's good enough for me to listen to him for once in my life," she explained.

"Huh? _Okay_..."

She started to run out of the library to the direction from where Terra's rather urgent voice came. She could hear that Ven was following her, being closely behind, but he stayed behind her all the time, letting her lead him. The livingroom had no door, so she could already see Terra standing near her favorite sofa. When she was close enough, she made a final sprint, just when-

_BAM!_

Almost immediately, something invisible stopped Aqua from entering the livingroom. The force in which she had bumped into that barrier was so strong that she flew back several meters and landed on the floor, right on top of poor Ven. Her face hurt kinda. It felt as though someone had slapped her cheek, because it had hit that invisible thing first. It was needless to say that Terra had almost started to laugh his brains out by now. She couldn't blame him the least, though. She would have laughed too if she had been on his place.

After the first shock was gone, she got up to inspect the invisible barrier. Was it some kind of magnetic field that had stopped her? Had Terra done that? Was he really capable of achieving such magic?

"I'm fine, guys. Thanks for asking," Ven muttered grumpily, while trying to get up.

Aqua didn't even hear it and lightly touched the invisible thing that blocked the doorway with her fingertips. The surface was smooth and it felt neither cold, nor warm. How strange. What kind of material was it?

"Man, talk about poor eyesight here," was the first thing Terra said. "That's what you get from reading too many books."

"Huh?"

She gave him a confused look.

"You were just in time to see the fun. Or rather, _not_ see it."

Aqua frowned, tilting her head to the side. "...I still don't get it."

"What do you think of this plastic? It took me quite a while to put it there and get it in that perfect, almost invisible shape," Terra explained patiently to her.

She eyed his smirk suspiciously. Then she finally got it. Of course, this was just another stupid, immature prank of him and she hadn't even seen that coming (no pun intended), literally this time. Oh, she was such an idiot!

She blushed slightly from embarrassment. "This is nothing compared to what I have in mind, for you," she whispered. Terra, though, was still able to hear it. She walked off with an incoherent, "hmph!"

Terra wondered what she meant with that, but something told him that he would find out very soon...

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ ****Hmm, to be honest with you, I didn't really like this chapter. For me, it was too short, but I just couldn't think of anything else to add after Ven came to the library to make it at least a little bit funny... Uh-oh, looks like the beginnings of a writersblock are about to strike here. O.o ****Well, reviews still are highly appreciated! :) (Hint, hint, hint!) By the way, if you have any suggestions for a prank, let me know! This story will have six more chapter beside this one, because I don't have that many ideas left. :( Anyways, next chapter's title will be: "Glue 'em Together!" Can you guess what's gonna happen there?**


	5. Glue 'em Together!

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this chapter, which takes place before the events of KH BBS. This one's also to celebrate the 1000 hits I've got for this story. It's very surprising, because it only was the fourth chapter. Oh well, I'm not complaining. :D Enjoy reading! By the way, don't EVER try this at home. That goes for all the other pranks, too. Just sayin'...**

**Thanks: Mooncry, RikkiCullen29, HiddenChaser, BloodyAphrodite and Sovereign Beta.**

* * *

_~ __Now just try to take that shirt off, Terra. You get all my money if you succeed, _she thought, smirking. ~

* * *

Aqua was now on the warpath. She wouldn't stay friendly anymore and throw away the rules book from now on. He didn't deserve to be threated with respect. Not after what he had done to her. Terra sure had guts! She found it so terrible that she had lied to him, telling him that his prank was nothing compared to the one she had in her mind. _Right_. In reality, she still had no idea of what she should do next. Her mind was in a fog, almost literally. All that thinking made her so tired, no, scratch that,_ exhausted_! It just wasn't fair. That was what made it all so bad. Now, she had to come up with something brilliant, otherwise she would make a complete fool out of herself in front of him, and Ven. Maybe she should think things through first and never show her opponents the cards she had, before saying or doing something stupid. Not that she had any cards left to show them to people... Perhaps one of the many books in the library could help her, or inspire her and give her a good idea. She could at least try it, right? She didn't have anything to lose there.

Sighing wearily, she slowly rose from her bed. As she passed the big mirror that was on the door of her closet, her eye fell immediately on the two gigantic bruises on her cheek and forehead. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees instantly. She didn't know how Terra had been able to make that plastic as hard as steel (although it had felt even harder than steel when she had collided into it), but it had certainly left its marks. Literally. She probably didn't want to know how he had managed to do that, anyway. Who knew what he was thinking. But honestly, of all places, it just had to be on her forehead, so everyone could see it, even with her hair in the way?

"Well, it does match your hair a bit," Terra had said, barely able to hide his huge grin.

She had almost attacked him right then and there. Fortunately for him, she had been able to control herself (but barely). The only thing she had done, was mutter a stream of four letter words under her breath. No doubt he had heard them all, though, but she didn't care about that. Ven, however, certainly didn't show any sympathy toward her, because he still believed firmly that _she_ should be the one to stop, for she had started "all this nonsense," as he put it. Tch, as if! Terra had obviously asked for it himself, thanks to his haughty behavior. What a pity that he attacked her, too, in his own way. That made everything even more difficult... and annoying. Maybe luck would be on her side after today. She surely could use some.

After grabbing some paper and pen, she walked towards the door and closed it behind her.

"Let the brainstorming begin," the blue-haired beauty muttered under her breath.

* * *

Aqua really loved the peaceful quiet that the library offered her every day, and the smell of all those thick, old and dusty books that had existed for a share amount of decades in this great space. Every time she walked through the long, deserted aisles, in between the high bookshelves, it seemed as though she was in a totally different world, far away of the reality she had to live in. She didn't hate that reality, but this idea certainly didn't feel wrong. Being still deep in thought, she brushed with her index finger lightly on the many thick covers. Absent-mindedly, she began to hum a song from her childhood. One that her mother always sang for her when she was a little girl and when she would feel sad. That wouldn't happen too often, but still...

Suddenly, however, she was startled out of her own picture perfect world when her hand was stuck somewhere, on some sticky substance. Eeew, she'd rather not know what that stuff was. How _gross_, it seemed to be decades old chewing gum. Just great. Of course this would only happen to her...

This brought her to another great idea, though. However, it would cost her her precious sleep, again. She figured that she had no choice, so it had to be that way. She had to wake up before Terra would, otherwise her plan had no chance of success. The only thing she needed for this prank, had to be somewhere in her bedroom. She turned and started running back again. There was no time to lose.

* * *

The next day, her alarm clock went off exactly fifteen minutes earlier than usual; that was all the time she would need, anyways. It was all according to plan. Once the annoying beeping sound filled the room, her right hand shot out to her alarm clock quickly and automatically, to turn it off at once. A sleepy head with extremely fuzzy, blue hair that stood on all sides peaked out from under the soft, lilac-colored blankets. She groaned inwardly. She was still not ready to get up, but she had no choice. She'd rather turn on her side and continue sleeping. She knew she couldn't do that, though.

"Guh, I'm _really_ getting too old for this."

Still, she got up, out of her bed, to get started with her new masterplan. It was time to make him pay for the bruise he had given her. She didn't even bother to change her clothes or comb her hair neatly first, so it would look more presentable, but she took the big tube of super glue that was standing on her tidy desk, ready to be used. He was fast asleep, anyway, so he wouldn't have the chance to comment about how she looked. Aqua really hoped this would work.

On her slippers, she slipped into the corridor and closed her bedroom door softly behind her. She barely made any noise. Then she put her ear onto Terra's door. There was only silence from the other side of the door. She couldn't even hear him snoring. That wasn't so strange, because as far as she knew, Terra never snored. Would that mean that he was awake? Very slowly and cautiously, Aqua opened the door, wincing by each light creeking that accompanied the movement, because that could wake him up. Her heart started beating faster and faster when she saw how Terra stirred slightly, but fortunately, he didn't wake up. She sighed, relieved and thanked all the gods that she knew or had heard of for that wonder. It would be real trouble if he would wake up so suddenly, because Terra was also known for sleeping through everything. Sometimes even through his own alarm clock, so that someone else still had to wake him up, which was quite a task, too.

Step by step, she came closer to the almost lifeless-looking and still sleeping form. This was almost too good to be true, as if Fate was telling her to take this chance and get him back. How would she start now?

Terra lay on his back. His left arm dangled almost lazily over the edge of the bed and his fingertips almost reached the floor. His other arm rested simply on his stomach. He wore a simple white T-shirt with the symbol of his favorite sports team on the left side of his chest. His chest slowly rose up and down, in a steady rhythm. For Aqua, that was the only proof that he wasn't dead (yet). She shivered involuntarily by the thought. It was something you wouldn't even wish for your enemies to happen... Well, of course there were always some exceptions, but she couldn't think of anyone at the moment.

Aqua decided to start with his dangling arm first, because that seemed to be a lot easier. With one hand, she turned it around, while her other hand gently put some glue in Terra's palm. Then she ran with the tip of her nail ever so lightly over his left cheek, trying to trigger some action from him. He knew this would tickle him slightly She continued doing this, until Terra himself lifted his left hand in his sleep to make it stop, probably thinking that it was an utterly annoying fly that bothered him in his sweet sleep. However, as soon as his hand came into contact with his cheek, he kept his hand planted firmly against it, making it difficult for Aqua to restrain her giggles so he wouldn't wake up.

She wasn't finished with him yet, though. Quickly and agily, Aqua took his other hand that was resting on his stomach as well and put some fast-drying glue on it, knowing very well that it wouldn't be long before he opened his eyes. She had to hurry if she didn't want him to see her here and ask what the hell she was doing in his room... again. Therefore, she just put his hand against his cheek this time. That saved some time.

_Now just try to take that shirt of yours off, Terra. You get all my money if you succeed by yourself, _she thought, smirking.

Tiptoeing out of Terra's bedroom, she thought of something else; it probably would have been funnier if she had glued the side of his head against his pillow. It was too late for that, though. Well, maybe she could save that for another time. Fortunately, she didn't bump into Ven before she had reached her room, or even worse: Master Eraqus. That would've been even more awkward.

* * *

After she had finished her daily routine and was dressed completely, she went downstairs to have breakfast. Ven already sat, as expected, on his place at the table when she went into the kitchen. As always, he looked up when he heard her coming, his cerulean eyes meeting her darker blue ones.

"Good morning, Ven," Aqua greeted the spiky-haired boy, as she walked over to him to ruffle his hair affectionately.

Today, she happened to be the one who greeted the other first, smiling. Normally, it was vice versa, but Ven was behaving differently toward her lately. She noticed it when she ruffled his hair. It was almost as if he turned his head slightly away from her near the end.

"Hi, Aqua."

That was exactly what she meant. Even with that sweet little smile on his face, he looked cautiously. Aqua quirked an eyebrow, but said nothing about the matter. She wasn't in the right mood for this yet. Breakfast came first. She grabbed a clean bowl and spoon from the cupboard and a carton of milk from the refrigerator. Putting them on the table, she went back for the XL-pack with her favorite cereal.

"So I take it that Terra isn't done showering yet?" Ven tried to start a conversation, as always.

At least one thing had stayed the same about him.

She turned around to face him, smiling a little. "Are you kidding me? Terra hasn't even woken up yet!" Ven snickered briefly at that, but the sound was drowned out by loud shouts from upstairs. That could only mean one thing. "Okay, scratch that last one," she said softly to herself, but Ven had also heard it and now looked at her in a strange way.

She knew exactly what he was thinking, that she had done something to make him this mad, again. That was quite offending, honestly... even if his suspicions were true.

"What?" she asked.

He just shook his head and said nothing. Not that he had time for it, because at that moment, there was a lot of tumbling when someone pounded down the stairs. It could be only one person: Terra. Master Eraqus walked almost without making any sound, almost like he was floating instead of walking. Perhaps it was a thing that only a Master could do.

Suddenly a systematic, hard pounding could be heard. It made the floor shudder and was accompanied by loud cries of pain. Then it was all quiet again, except for a soft groaning. Both Ven and Aqua looked at the entrance of the kitchen, but there was nothing to see there. Terra didn't appear in the kitchen, as they were half-expecting. That couldn't promise anything good...

Ven was the first who broke the silence. "We'd better go check it out."

Aqua nodded briefly and quickly led the way. The first thing they found in the corridor, was Terra who was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, his face contorted with pain and his hands firmly planted against his cheek. Aqua paled instantly.

"Terra!" they both cried out, startled.

She let the XL-pack of cereal that she still had in her hands drop. It fell on the neat floor and the pieces of cereal scattered on the black and white tiles, while she ran to him and knelt down beside him.

For a moment, she forgot the world around her when she looked deep into his cobalt-colored eyes. "Where does it hurt?" Aqua whispered as she gently brushed some of his chocolate brown hair out of his eyes.

That certainly didn't go unnoticed by Terra.

He shuddered a bit at the touch of her cool fingers against his warm skin, but he shook the newly formed thoughts out of his head. "My leg. The left one," he groaned through clenched teeth.

"Terra, you have broken a few teeth?" Ven asked, also taking a part of the conversation.

"No," he growled with a low voice, grimacing from the pain.

"Then why are you holding your cheeks for dear li-"

"What happened here?"

The three Keyblade wielders almost jumped when they heard the stern voice of their Master. He had just emerged out of nowhere, like he often did, and then he knelt down to Terra, on the opposite of Aqua. He inspected his leg thoroughly.

A frown appeared on his forehead, making Aqua bite her lip (in guilt, because this was obviously her fault). "This has clearly only one solution." The wise man looked at his students one by one before he continued, "Terra's leg needs to rest for a week and Aqua is the one who will take care of him."

Aqua's eyes widened and her jaw almost reached the floor.

From the look on her face, everyone could tell quite easily that she clearly hadn't seen that one coming. "What? _Why?_" she cried in dismay. In her madness, she forgot her politeness, so she quickly added "Master," to make it sound less respectless.

Master Eraqus had a neutral expression on his face, so she couldn't tell whether he was angry at her or not. That could be a _very_ bad thing for her, though.

"Because, Aqua, if I'm not mistaken, you must be the one who glued his hands against his cheeks this morning."

Aqua's own cheeks turned a bright red from embarrassment. She couldn't know that this prank wouldn't end that well. It had never been her intention to deliberately hurt him in any way. Maybe she really deserved this punishment, because she had brought him in danger...

She bowed her head. "Yes, Master. I will accept my punishment and it won't happen again."

"Good. And the reason I won't heal your leg, Terra, is because you delivered Aqua a bruise yesterday. It wouldn't be fair of me to let you get away with that, now would it?"

Terra's mouth dropped in almost the same way as Aqua's did. "_What_?" he cried out, incredulously. His Master gave him a _look_ that clearly said he wasn't pleased at all. "I mean, that wouldn't be fair for me, because I only did that because she dyed my hair pink! _Pink_, for crying out loud! Plus this hurts so _much. _It's unbearable! I can't hold on until it finally gets better."

He groaned again to emphasis what he had said, but Master Eraqus didn't buy it. "I'm afraid you don't have a choice. Terra, you knew I had given her detentions because of her actions, but you still didn't stop with these pranks when you had to. I think this punishment is fair enough for the both of you. If it really hurts that much, then you can take painkillers. It will ease the pain," the man replied.

Terra gave up, looking down.

He knew it was of no use when his Master had set his mind on one thing. "Yes, Master," he said, sighing.

Master Eraqus helped him get up now, with Aqua's help, who seemed to take her new task _very_ serious. That was only a good thing.

"Let's have breakfast. You will need all your energy for today, the three of you," The Master spoke, solemnly.

"Yes, Master," all three of them said, simultaneously.

They all set sail for the kitchen that was big enough to serve as the dining room. Aqua had the idea that this might be a long week for her. Terra would surely use his bruised bone in his advantage, because he really was that sneaky.

* * *

**A/N: Phew, this chapter is done. Thanks for reading this! =) I Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Let me know what you think of this one-shot. And I kept writing XD instead of XL. It almost wasn't funny anymore. The title of the next chapter is "Hot and Cold." Any ideas what that could mean?**


	6. Hot and Cold

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes before KH BBS. I changed something in the previous chapter, somewhere near the end. Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, BloodyAphrodite, Misspond and CrimsonDarkness 0013**

* * *

_~ "Unbelievable, and they say you're the smartest of the three of us. I have my doubts, though." ~_

* * *

"Aaaquaaah?"

Oh great, there was that irritating voice that she couldn't possibly ignore, again. Aqua groaned inwardly when she heard it for the umpteenth time that day. It gave her goosebumps... and this time, it was not in a good way.

"Where aaare you?"

_Ugh, not again! Maybe I should knock him out for the rest of the week, putting sleeping pills in his drink, or something. At least then I'll finally get some rest, _she thought, getting more and more annoyed with Terra and his stupid wishes that never stopped.

That idea started to get pretty appealing after everything she'd been through that week. Especially now that he wouldn't shut up. Was it just her or did it seem that he needed more things now that he had to rest? Normally, he wouldn't drink that much as he did now. He just did that to get on her nerves, and she knew that very well. She'd better go now and check up on him, before he would start trying to annoy the heck out of her just for the kicks of it (as if he hadn't done that several times already), which was something he was doing quite a lot lately.

After a long-suffering sigh escaped her lips for what seemed the umpteenth time that day, she got up rather slowly and walked toward the livingroom, where the most annoying young man of this world sat on the couch, his hurt leg also on a cushion on the couch. The closer she came to the room, the more she just wanted to turn around and leave him be, but she knew she couldn't do that. She had promised Master Eraqus to take care of Terra as her punishment.

_Stupid Terra with his hurt leg. Stupid glue. Stupid stairs. Stupid destiny. If it wasn't for all those stupid things, I wouldn't be doing this now._

"Now what?" Aqua asked through clenched teeth.

The vein in her temple that always appeared when she was extremely stressful or annoyed, had started to show up some days ago (exactly on the day that she had heard what her punishment was) and it hadn't disappeared from that moment on.

"Could you please refill my glass, _sweetie_?" Terra asked sweetly.

It made Aqua almost feel sick and from the look on his face she could tell that that had just been the reason he had called her sweetie. "For the last time, I'm _not_ your "sweetie," so stop calling me that, before I really break that leg of yours," she growled.

Terra started to smirk defiantly, crossing his arms over his chest, as if to show off his muscles. "You wouldn't dare."

She gave him one of her famous _looks_. The intensity of it could have burned the whole room, along with Terra, who merely raised an eyebrow.

Too bad it didn't happen, though, she thought.

_"Try me."_

Terra only smiled, knowing that that would only worsen her mood. She snatched the empty glass from his hand - it almost slipped out of her hands - and turned around to leave again.

"Oh Aaaquaah?"

She tensed immediately. Aqua _really_ hated it when he called her name like that. It showed that he was enjoying the whole situation.

_"What?"_

Aqua didn't even bother to turn around so she could face him. She also didn't bother to sound just an itty bit more friendly, because he didn't deserve her politeness at all. Not after what she had discovered about him yesterday... That little liar.

"Thank you," he spoke.

This actually came as a surprise, but she didn't show him that. Aqua wouldn't say "You're welcome" or "No problem" to him, simply because he certainly _wasn't_ welcome and she thought it actually _was_ a problem. Instead, she mumbled something about wanting to break his bones slowly, one by one. Terra quirked his other eyebrow as well, smirking evilly, while Aqua headed to the kitchen.

He watched her go, thinking, _I had never thought that getting on Aqua's nerves was so much fun! I should do this more often. She looks cute when she's mad like this._

Sometimes, Aqua wished fervently that she wouldn't be right that much, just like she was five days ago. That would make life a lot easier for her. At first she hadn't noticed anything strange at all, because she had felt terribly guilty about Terra's bruised leg (Well, it kinda was her fault and she had bruised enough bones during training to know how much it hurt. Luckily he hadn't broken anything by the fall off the stairs, or else she wouldn't have had any rest at all. Not that it was any different now).

Two days ago, however, she noticed what crazy things he asked her to do for him. It had started with getting drinks for him, putting packs of ice on his feet to reduce the swelling and soften the pain a bit (which wasn't much of a surprise. It had made her feel terribly guilty, though), and doing his hair, - she had to admit secretly that the latter was actually quite fun. She really had enjoyed it, because it was something new and different. And the fact that he had such silky smooth hair only made it better for her. She liked running her fingers through his soft hair, but she would never say that in public. She didn't need to hear Terra's comments about that - but it ended with _feeding_ him.

Why in the world did she have to do that? He hadn't broken his arms, now had he? Or had she missed something in the past few days? And the worst thing was that she didn't want to tell Master Eraqus about it, because a little part of her had actually _enjoyed_ that, too.

The question was, _why_? Was it because she liked seeing him helpless and dependant on her like that, or was it because of something else? And what could that 'something else' be? She honestly didn't know and she probably didn't want to know the right answer, anyway. Deep down inside of her, though, she had a hunch. It was something that made her blush and it made her stomach do backflips on and on and on...

Aqua sighed, running a slender hand through her lilac locks. This... this whole situation, it was _hopeless_. She tried to think of something else, for this was getting too much for her to bear. Yesterday, she even caught him while he was walking around in his own room, like a normal healthy person, without using his crutches and without pained looks because of the pressure that he put on his hurt foot. Well, that could only mean one thing, right? Needless to say, Terra didn't know that she knew about everything, for he hadn't seen her.

From that moment on, she had decided to show Master Eraqus that Terra was fooling everyone in this house, including his own Master. He probably wouldn't believe her if he just told him the truth. He would think that she only tried to escape from her punishment. She couldn't blame her Master, because a part of that was true. Aqua just didn't know how to do that yet, but that wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't take her long to come up with some plan.

Coming back to the living room again, she forgot about these thoughts as soon as she saw him again. Aqua handed an overly amused Terra the glass of lemonade without saying anything in the process.

"Thanks. It's not poisoned, is it?" he asked, jokingly.

Aqua glared at him, almost as though she tried to make holes in his face by using her eyes alone. "Unfortunately not. I couldn't find any rat poison in the kitchen," she sneered.

Terra laughed at that, the sound being strangely cheerful. "Wow, I didn't know you hated me that much."

_Oh, you have no idea, Terra. Trust me. Most of all, I hate the fact that you seem to get away with everything you do, but that's going to change soon._

"Surprised? There's more you don't know about me."

"Ooh, someone's a little bit grumpy today. What happened to the little ray of sunshine?" he wondered aloud.

She didn't reply, but started to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?" he asked.

_None of your business, you liar!_

"Cooking. It's my turn today," she answered, without turning.

"But what about me? I just wanted a massage. My muscles are sore from sitting here all day," he asked desperately.

The fact that he thought that he could even use her for such things made her turn around swiftly. He saw that her cheeks had turned a faint pink.

"Oh, I'm sure you can survive forty minutes without me. Or shall I call Master Eraqus to help you in the mean time? I bet he'll be please to give you a nice massage."

He sighed wearily at that. "No, I'll be fine... I hope. Jeez, no need to be so harsh all the time. I'm starting to miss the old Aqua."

Her heart skipped a beat or two, before she found her tongue again to tell him, "Don't worry, you'll get used to the new one."

* * *

The smell of what Aqua was cooking had filled the clean kitchen minutes ago and it had spreaded through the entire north wing. She had opened a window so there would be enough fresh air, but it hadn't helped that much. Oh well, you couldn't have luck all the time.

"Dinner's ready!" she shouted from the kitchen, knowing that everyone was close enough to hear her.

Almost at once, as if he had been hiding behind the door all this time, Ven came into the kitchen. He cried aloud, "Mmm, what smells so incredibly good here?"

"It's a rice dish. I honestly don't remember what it's called precisely, though," she replied, her back still turned to him.

"Rice à la Aqua. That just has to be tasty. Shall I set the table, then you can do the rest," he suggested.

Aqua smiled and turned to Ven who already had his hand placed on the cutlery tray. "Please. Thank you, Ven."

Aqua truly loved Ven. He was like a little brother to her. He always knew how to make her laugh with his lively and cheerful personality. He always helped her with everything and she knew she could always count on him if she needed to. He was just so _sweet_, it almost made her cry sometimes. If only Terra would look just a little bit more like him and take an example of him, personalitywise that is, because he didn't lack anything on the looks department... Aqua shook her head to clear it from disturbing thoughts. She had always wanted to have a brother. She was an only child and according to her father that was all her own fault.

Before she had come here, she had had a big argument with her father. He had been so angry at her when she had told him she would go to this place, that he had said in his madness that Aqua had nearly killed her mother at her birth, because she was born by a breech. This had made her so sad that she immediately had run to her room, collapsing on her bed and practically crying her eyes out of her head. Her mother had accidentally heard everything and had come upstairs to comfort her and explain the whole story, because her father had just been half right.

She had said how much she loved her, how proud she was of her that she had come so far and that she fully supported her choice, no matter what it was. She had given Aqua a necklace as a gift to remember her. She wore it under her clothes and would never take it off.

Sometimes she was lucky enough to receive letters from home. They were always written by her mother. Her father hadn't even looked at her eversince, let alone written letters to her. She hadn't said goodbye to him, because he had gone to his work on the day that she had left home. He had said that he wouldn't regard her as his daughter anymore as she dared to leave.

It had hurt a lot at first. The pain had been unbearable, but now she didn't care anymore. Her mother was all she had as family, because her two uncles, the brothers of her father, had died long ago in a war in another world and her mother didn't have any brothers and sisters, just like her. She knew that Master Eraqus was fully aware of this whole situation. Aqua's mother had probably told him everything.

She shook those nasty thoughts away and noticed that she already sat at the table with the others. The rest had even started with eating. Aqua saw that Ven was looking at her quizzically, having noticed her odd behavior. She shook her head and managed to smile a bit at him in order to reassure him that nothing was wrong. Aqua quickly took a bite to disperse further attention toward her. Immediately, she felt how a kind of prickly heat spread in her mouth. It was so overwhelming that she felt like she was on fire, literally.

She began to move her hands in front of her mouth rapidly. "Hoh! Hoh!_ Hoh!_"

Master Eraqus and Terra gave her a funny look, probably wondering what the hell she was doing. The latter even grinned a little. Ven understood the hint, however, and swiftly gave her a glass of water. Gratefully, she immediately took it and drank it. It didn't help that much, but enough to give Terra a murderous look.

"Sorry that I'm laughing at you, but it's also your own fault. Of course your food is hot, it just came out of the pan that had been on the fire for half an hour or so. Unbelievable, and they say you're the smartest of the three of us. I have my doubts, though and you can't blame me for it now," said Terra, teasingly.

"It wasn't just hot. _Someone_ put chilli pepper in my food when I wasn't looking."

Aqua had looked at Terra when she had said "someone." She narrowed her eyes to thin slits, so that everyone only could see the blue of her eyes, and the whites were out of sight. She continued to look at him like that.

"What? I couldn't have done it, if that's what you're thinking. I have an alibi, because I can barely walk normally," said Terra again when he saw her glance.

He pointed at his left leg and the crutches that lay on the floor.

_Alibi, my ass. We'll just see about that, Terra._

"You don't need to be able to walk to put things in someone's food, as long as you have hands, that is," Aqua replied, sharply.

Under the table, she made some movements.

"Whatever. Then don't believe me."

Suddenly, without any warning, Terra's chair clapped back and fell on the floor, clattering. He had gotten up. He started to move in all sorts of crazy ways and jumped up and down, almost like he was performing a weird sort of snake dance, that was hiccupping at the same time. Little did the others know what he was feeling at that moment; something wet and so cold that it almost felt like it was hot, was tracing down his back. There were three of them, neatly spread over his whole back, so that the highly annoying feeling couldn't be ignored. He didn't know what it was, but he had to get rid of them, _now_.

Everyone had noticed by now that he had stood all this time with his full weight on his "injured" leg, which was a dead giveaway. It contradicted what he had just said, too, about barely being able to stand on his feet.

Aqua started to smirk. _This smells like victory._

"Cooohold!" he said, shivering violently.

Ven had an utterly bewildered look on his face that said "What the hell?", but Aqua and Master Eraqus looked particularly amused.

Terra realized this and quirked an eyebrow at them. "Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked.

"Whoa, it's a miracle. Your leg has been miraculously healed. _Hallelujah_," Aqua said, grinning.

She pointed at his "injured" leg.

"What? That's not-" Terra noticed something. Suddenly, he started groaning again as he grabbed his right leg. "Ow! My leg! I forgot about it."

He dropped to the floor in his dramatic act, grimacing from the pain that probably wasn't really there.

"Terra, a couple of minutes ago it was your other leg that was injured," said Aqua, laughing and helping him remember. "Did you really think I wouldn't noticed that after taking care of you and your leg for a whole week? Tch, how naive."

She shook her head in mock-sympathy. Terra looked as if he felt like muttering lots of four-letter words for his own stupidity. Ven laughed at Terra's very stupid mistake, and the look on his face. Apparently, Aqua was called the smartest of them for a reason; she would've never made such a mistake. He was sure of that now. But it was too late already...

"But now this leg hurts. I think my chair landed on it, or something. Well, I guess you have to take care of my other leg for the following week," he said, defended himself, but he already knew it was hopeless.

They weren't that stupid to fall for this with open eyes. "In your dreams, Terra. You can get up again, acting time's over and your food's getting cold this way."

Sulking, he did what Aqua said.

In his head he scolded himself some more. _Out of all times I could make a mistake, it had to be now?_

"Oh, and Terra?"

It was the first time his Master said something.

"Yes, Master?" Terra asked.

He felt that he would get to hear his punishment, and unfortunately, he was right about that one.

"You'll do the dishes for the next two weeks, on your own," he said sternly.

Terra sighed. "Yes, Master."

Aqua's mood was instantly a lot better and that was easy to see for everyone. She truly loved magic and the fact that she was good at it. The "put-some-ice-cubes-that-will-slide-down-Terra's-bare-back" trick proved to be successful once again, for Terra had betrayed himself, and how! Mission accomplished. Delighted, she took another bite of the rice dish. Ven was right, the rice was quite tasty. And victory tasted very sweet indeed! Life was truly great! At least, it was today. She didn't know what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Only chapter 9 is a bit longer than this. ****Anyways, next chapter's title will be: "Balloons" Can you guess what's gonna happen there?**


	7. Balloons

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. I changed some things in the previous chapter...again. Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, KCee, Sovereign Beta, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Mooncry and BloodyAphrodite**

* * *

_~ "Of course not! What have I ever done to you that you think that bad of me?" ~_

* * *

Terra surely wasn't in a good mood for the following days. She really had never seen him in such a bad temper before, not even when he'd gone through puberty. It was almost scary in a way, because she wasn't sure what to expect of him anymore. Maybe he couldn't take it that he had lost from her. That wasn't of her concern, though. Right now, she was busy with putting up another prank in revenge for the hot peppers he had put in her food. She had to be careful this time, though, because he seemed to be pissed off enough, already.

It just couldn't have been anyone else, but Terra himself. Master Eraqus was far too serious to pull a prank on her and Ven was too sweet and innocent to do that to her. Terra had kept hidden from everyone that he actually could walk, probably for more reasons than for Aqua to take care of him for the whole friggin' week (and she still couldn't believe the fact that Master Eraqus hadn't noticed something earlier. He usually was quick in these things, since he had a lot of experience with little liars). Then there was automatically only one person left who had done it. Exactly: Terra.

It was kinda strange that nobody else had noticed Terra doing that, though. Perhaps he had done it when Master Eraqus hadn't entered the kitchen yet. And Ven... he probably just hadn't seen it, because he had been too busy with setting the table... or something like that. Well, either way, it didn't matter anymore.

It sure was a great blessing from heaven that she was already so advanced in magic, because all those balloons that she needed for the prank didn't blow themselves. She had lost count at the 133rd balloon... or was it 331? Aqua didn't remember. She had purchased fifteen packets of 200 balloons. It had cost her only fifteen Munny, so it was very cheap.

When she was finally finished with her new masterpiece, she blew the balloons a bit away, so she could close the door of Terra's bedroom (that was the destination of her new prank) without them getting in the way. Whoa, there were so many of them! The whole room was filled with it until her waist. She didn't want to think about how long it would've taken her if she couldn't have used magic. Far too long, that's what.

At the time that she just wanted to walk away, Terra came walking toward her. He stopped in front of her, remaining still and crossing his arms against his chest. They looked at each other in silence. Since Terra was slightly taller than her, if felt more like he was looking down upon her, his deep azure eyes considerably colder than they had been for the past days.

The brunet male was the first one to break the somewhat awkward silence that was as palpable as smoke from a sigaret. "Did you need something from my room?" he asked, interrupting the short silence.

Aqua was more than grateful that he had taken the first step. She nodded briefly.

With some great difficulty, she suppressed the mischievous smile that threatened to appear on her face. "Yes. I think I left there something when I had to take care of your hurt leg last week."

She tried not to emphasis on the word hurt. It would only make him more grumpy.

Even now, his face fell when he was reminded of that again. "Okay." He put his hand on the doorknob, but didn't open the door yet, eyeing her suspiciously.

"What, is there something wrong?" she asked, looking up at him, almost too innocently to be believable.

"Tell me, will I get anything in my face when I open the door?" he asked her, frowning slightly.

So he had a hunch that she had done something? The blue-haired teen couldn't blame him for it. It seemed that he knew her far better than she had expected.

Aqua hastily shook her head, looking thoroughly perplexed at the insinuation. "Of course not! What have I ever done to you that you think that bad of me?"

He raised a thin eyebrow and looked meaningfully at her, which said more than enough already. Aqua knew that right now, he was thinking of the hairdye, make-up, glue and ice, and all the pranks she had pulled with him. She sighed.

Maybe that had been a stupid question of her. "Okay, nevermind. But the point is that I'm not _that_ bad. I wouldn't do this to you and scoop that low. Not when you've been through such a... hard week," she explained, solemnly, but he still didn't seem to believe her.

"Then what's with the smile you're trying to hide from me?"

Damn, he had seen that, too.

"Oh that? That's just because of uh..." she thought of a good excuse. "I'm in a good mood. That's all."

He looked at her for a moment, as if he was trying to search for the truth in her cerulean eyes. When he couldn't find any answer, the brunet opened his bedroom door, deciding to believe her this time and give her the benefit of the doubt. What he didn't expect to see, though, was a fountain of different colors that greeted him and flew almost like water towards him. After he had recovered from the initial shock of seeing hundreds of balloons in his bedroom, he turned his sullen look at her.

"So? Do you like it?" Aqua asked.

She looked at him expectingly.

His expression didn't change a bit, though. "Let me guess, you've been working on this all day long?"

"Uh-huh!" she said, nodding enthusiastically. "Cool, huh?"

"And you don't have the slightest notion that you could've spent your time better on something more, let's say... _useful_?" he deadpanned.

"Nope," she replied, shaking her head.

Her smile widened when she saw that he frowned. He stepped into his room, kicking the balloons that dared to come near his feet. They just kept coming back to his feet, as stubborn as they were. Wait, balloons couldn't be stubborn... or could they?

Terra turned around to face her again. "Very mature of you. Really, you've surpassed yourself this time... Why did you do this in the first place?"

"Isn't that obvious? I did it to lighten up the mood, 'cause let's face it, you've been so grumpy this whole week, that it's not funny anymore."

He grunted at that, running a hand through his spiky mane.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well, _what_?"

"Did it work?"

He chose to ignore her last question, because this had only made him more grumpy. Instead, he asked her, "And this is all you've got?"

"...Not really. There's still one more thing I've got to do."

He looked at her, questioningly. Truth was, that that answer surprised him, but did he even want to know what would come next? Knowing her, he probably didn't. However, before he had the chance to dodge her, she pushed him hard in his stomach and he staggered, knowing that he wouldn't regain his balance again. He grabbed Aqua's wrist and dragged her with him when he fell, so she came to lie on top of him. Fortunately, the many colored balloons broke their sudden fall, so it didn't hurt at all.

This way, he was able to smell Aqua's new shampoo and it truly was intoxicating.

_Whoa, deja vu! _Aqua thought, surprised.

She looked straight into his cobalt-colored eyes and blushed when she felt his arm being wrapped around her waist.

"I can tell from that look on your face that you didn't expect _this_ to happen. Am I right?"

Aqua said nothing. She could only look at him. Her vocal cords didn't seem to work anymore. Yes, he was right, this had come as a complete surprise for her.

"Strange huh, how things sometimes can take such a surprising turn?"

She had frankly no idea what he was talking about, but something told her that she had to get away from him, and quick.

Aqua tried to move away, but he wouldn't let her do that. "Terra, let me go!"

"Why should I? So I'll be buried under these dangerous balloons all on my own? I'm sorry, but I can't give you that pleasure. We have to end this together."

She tried to get up once again, away from him, but it was of no use. After all, Terra wasn't called the strongest out of the three of them by Master Eraqus for nothing.

With his free hand, he swiftly grabbed a blue balloon that lay near him and started to grin. "It's time to give someone a bad hair day," he said.

It took her a while to get it, but when she did, her cerulean eyes widened in shock. "You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh no? Wanna bet?"

He didn't give her time to reply, or even protest and started rubbing the balloon against Aqua's overly blue hair, so it became static and soon enough stood in all directions.

"Terra, stop it!"

Aqua tried to wriggle herself loose from his steel grip, but she knew it was a lost cause, so she gave up eventually. Strangely enough, Terra seemed to stiffen all of a sudden. Aqua looked at him, surprised at this sudden change. His eyes had become as wide as saucers and his mouth had dropped open a little.

Aqua was about to ask what was wrong and if she had hurt him somehow during their struggle, but he already started to talk. "Oh! M-Master? Th-this is _not_ what it looks like. We can explain everything, I-I swear," Terra said suddenly, startled and scared at the same time.

His grip around her waist loosened somewhat. All color drained from Aqua's face when she realized that Master Eraqus had to be standing in the doorway. She got up with a jerk, fearing for the worst. When she saw that nobody was standing in the doorway, she quickly ran out of the room before Terra could get a hold of her again. She almost tripped over her own feet and some balloons that seemed to block her way.

Terra snickered, smirking evilly. Talk about payback. It seemed like Aqua didn't know how to get out of the room quick enough. It was almost... _cute_, what with the way she blushed when she fell on top of him and all. Thank heavens she wasn't that heavy. Instead she was... well, _soft_.

He looked around. Now the big question was how he could get rid of all those balloons and what to do with them next. Glueing them on all doors of the castle didn't seem to be a bad idea at all. His grin became wider instantly as he quickly scrambled to his feet to look for some tape or glue. And of course, Aqua's room would get the most balloons.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ I just realized something. This is the shortest chapter of this story. Oh well. N****ext chapter's title will be: "Fake a Smile!" Can you guess what's gonna happen there? (Oh, and I've got this idea from a reviewer.) **


	8. Fake a Smile!

**A/N: I still don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. Wow, two updates in one day. I'm on a roll today! Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Wolfsbane706, who gave me this idea, and Aqua StormXIV**

* * *

_~ "Man oh man, we're looking like vampires that just came back from hunting," Ven remarked. "But I'm not sure if I still find that so cool as I thought at first." ~_

* * *

Terra was fortunate enough to find a bottle with bright red dye in it. It was edible and perfect for his next prank he was going to set up. If he didn't know any better, he would think that Lady Fortune was on his side today. Terra would _definitely_ thank the gods later for that. He only had to wait until everyone had left the kitchen so he could pour it all in Aqua's favorite juice. Thank heavens the dye had exactly the same color as the juice, so she wouldn't suspect anything. He was really being bad here, wasn't he? But she had started it, and she always went too far. At least this wasn't bad for your health, he'd been sure to check that twice.

After he had done that, he quickly slipped out of the kitchen, without being seen by anyone. He had ensured that there was only one pack of cherry juice in the refrigerator, so she wouldn't take another pack instead of this one. Terra knew that Ven loved apple juice much more, so the guy was safe for now.

* * *

Aqua walked into the kitchen to get a glass of cold juice for Master Eraqus, Ven and herself. The first two had been training all day on quite difficult techniques, so they deserved a break. Terra would be too suspicious to accept what she would give him, so why would she even try? Plus she was still mad at him because of all those balloons that he had stuck on all the doors and the bad hair day he had given her. Terra had used her own prank against her. Now that was an unforgivable thing.

The worst thing of all was the fact that Master Eraqus didn't seem to mind those stupid balloons one bit, because he had given him permission to do as he pleased with all the balloons. She knew that Terra only had done that to tease her. Aqua didn't even dare to look him straight in the eyes eversince that incident with the balloons, which had happened a few days ago, let alone being with him in the same room for too long. It made her nervous like heck, and she didn't even know why.

She frowned as she saw that there was no apple juice left anymore. She knew that Ven didn't like water, because according to him it had no taste at all and he only liked orange juice in the morning. Yes, he was quite picky about such things, but then again, weren't all guys like that? The guys who lived with her were the living proof of it.

Eventually, she decided to pour some ice cold cherry juice for all of them, which happened to be her favorite drink. She set the three glasses on a white tray, along with a few energy bars (she was sure that they needed that now) and walked outside with it, stepping into the sunny gardens, where Ven and Master Eraqus were training. She had no idea where Terra was at the moment.

She sighed deeply. Things had changed between Terra and her, but she wasn't sure if he thought the same about it. Sometimes she really wondered when it all had begun. Perhaps after the incident with the painkillers? Could he even remember what exactly had happened? Probably not, because he never talked about it. Or perhaps he was just too embarrassed about it and he ignored it? Gosh, this was so confusing...

"Hey Aqua, you still there?"

She blinked a couple of times, seeing that Ven was waving his hand frantically in front of her eyes. "Huh, wha-?" she muttered, rather dazed.

She slowly returned to reality. Ven's cerulean eyes pierced right into hers. He tilted his head slightly, while he kept looking at her.

A nervous laugh escaped her lips before she could do anything about it. "Sorry. I guess I kinda spaced out."

"Kinda? May I ask who you were daydreaming about?" Ven asked her teasingly.

She began to blush. If Ven only knew. Thank heavens he didn't!

"N-nobody," she answered quickly.

Too quickly, she realized, because Ven's grin widened instantly. "Relax, Aqua. I was only teasing you. You don't have to tell us, if you do not want to. At least that explains why you forgot all about me."

It took a while for her to realize what exactly he was talking about.

She was glad that she could tell him that this hadn't been a mistake on her part. "There wasn't any apple juice left, so I poured cherry juice for you," she explained.

"Yeah, I would've said that too to make myself less conspicuous."

After that comment, her skin matched the color of a tomato when she heard that.

"Ven, leave that poor girl alone," said their Master when he thought that Ven went a bit too far with his teasing.

Ven bowed his head slightly. "Yes, Master."

Aqua let out a relieved breath, glad that she wouldn't have to answer awkward questions. Things were complicated enough between Terra and her already. However, she wondered if anyone else had noticed that, too. Or was she the only one?

They went to sit on the white stairs. Ven immediately began to talk about his new training and how he had broken his personal record in sprinting, again.

She smiled and just wanted to tell them that this was really good when he let out a startled cry. "Ven, what is it?" she asked, startled.

"Your teeth... no, your whole mouth. It's bleeding!" he said, aghast.

She frowned. "What?"

Aqua swiftly pulled a small mirror that she always brought with her out of one of her pockets. A shiver ran down her spine when she saw the reflection of her bloody mouth. She didn't like blood at all. It didn't matter if it was her own blood, or not. What in the world had she been doing to get this result?

"How can this be? It doesn't even hurt," she said softly.

"Have you-" Ven started, but Aqua interrupted him with a shriek of her own when she saw something in his mouth that looked unnaturally red.

"Ven, let me see your teeth," she demanded.

He did what she asked him to do, clueless as to why she was panicking like that.

She audibly gasped for breath. "It's exactly the same with yours!" she cried, aghast. "Did you get hurt during the training?"

They both checked whether Master Eraqus's mouth was red, too. Yes, it was. Then that could only mean one thing.

Aqua looked from the drink in her hand to the other two glasses. This just couldn't be a coincidence.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she then asked.

"Terra," they growled all three in unison.

So they actually did think the same.

"Man oh man, we're looking like vampires that just came back from hunting," Ven remarked. "But I'm not sure if I still find that so cool as I thought at first."

"Say cheese!"

Suddenly, a small device appeared in front of her. The flashing light that the device had made after she had heard a light click, almost blinded her. Aqua realized too late that it was a camera. Terra ran back to the castle again, but she didn't bother to follow him. Aqua promised herself one thing. She would make Terra pay for this, even if that was the last thing she would do.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Now this chappie is the shortest of all (hmm, maybe I should stop saying that all the time if I don't want the next chapter to be like 500 words, or something). N****ext chapter's title will be: "Pimp My Room!" So now you know a bit what's going to happen next, right?**


	9. Pimp My Room

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. I hope this chapter makes up for the shortness of chapter 7 and 8. Hope you like! Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: VaynexArabella4ever, Axrat, CrimsonDarkness 0013 and Aqua StormXIV**

* * *

_~ "Oh you know how I am, right? One and all kindness." ~_

* * *

Terra was still grinning at the fact that thanks to him, Aqua's teeth had been red for days on end. Oh, and Ven was an unlucky bastard, as always. There was no point in denying that. Somehow, he always seemed to become a victim of other people's jokes and pranks. He probably was born for it, the poor thing. The only thing that didn't really go according to plan, was that Master Eraqus' teeth had also changed from color. Unfortunately, that had given Terra an extra month of doing the dishes all by himself, as a punishment. But it had been all worth it... eventually... maybe.

Speaking of which, there she came walking toward him, with that sweet smile on her lips, as always. The smile that always made him smile back automatically, from the outside and the inside (if that was possible), whether he wanted to or not. One smile that made his heart beat faster and faster lately. Sometimes he wondered if she knew what she did with him, or if she felt the same for him. Probably not, but he didn't dare to ask her about it. Heck, he didn't even know himself how he felt about her.

She stood still in front of him, looking up at him. "Hey Terra, can I borrow a DVD from you?"

He had certainly not expected that question. It was beyond his knowledge how she never ceased to amaze him.

Terra nodded. "Sure. You can get it yourself, but please put it all back to where it belongs when you're done with it. All my CDs and DVDs are listed alphabetically, which is easier and saves much time searching for the one you need," he replied solemnly.

Aqua glanced at him and started to laugh. "Why? You don't have hundreds of shelves with different DVDs, do you?"

She made an exaggerated wide gesture with her arms, making Terra suddenly burst out laughing. "Just quiet, you. I told you it makes things easier? It actually does help."

"Uh-huh, _sure_," she said, sarcastically rolling her eyes. "Your room's a mess, but your CDs and DVDs are listen in alphabetical order? Do you think I can believe it that easily?"

He shrugged at that. "Then don't believe it. Go see it for yourself and when you finally got the proof, I don't think I'll forgive you for not believing me."

She just laughed sweetly. "We'll see, Terra."

Terra's stomach did a back flip as a response thereto. He watched her open his bedroom door. When she was in his room, he walked away, toward the library. He still had some homework to do and unfortunately, that couldn't wait.

* * *

Moments later, Aqua came to the library as well, where Terra was sitting in one of the chairs, doing his homework. He looked up from his reading when he heard her light footsteps. The first thing he noticed, was that she was holding one of his DVDs in her right hand.

He tried to keep his eyes on her face only and not to wander off to the rest of her body. That proved to be easier said than done. Guh, what was wrong with him today? He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and indexfinger. She sat down on the chair opposite of him.

The smile was still on her face, though it seemed to be more mischievous than before. "You know, at first I thought that you actually made a joke about these DVDs in alphabetic order, but I think it's still remarkable," she said, laughing.

"Surprise... So what have you chosen?" he asked, stretching his arm to indicate that he wanted to see the front of the DVD.

She handed him the DVD and replied, "**Rush Hour 7**. It's the latest of the series, right?"

He nodded. "Mhmm. Do you want to watch this movie tonight?" he guessed.

She nodded, looking quite excited. "Yeah, it was Ven's idea, actually. He likes action movies as much as I do, although he's not that keen on chickflicks, which is too bad. Not that you have any romantic movies. It would be kinda scary if you had them, anyway, so that solves the case," she explained.

Terra frowned at that, trying not to sound disappointed at all. "Oh. Okay."

An unknown, but strong feeling started to overpower him. A white haze of anger appeared in front of his eyes. His hand had turned into fists under the table when she'd mentioned Ven's name, for he didn't want Aqua to see it. Eversince Ven had come to live here with them, Aqua spent more and more time with him and much less with Terra. It was almost as though she had replaced him completely by a spiky-haired spunk. Terra couldn't take it anymore. Whenever he suggested to do something together, as in just the two of them, she thought it was necessary to involve Ven too, because he would feel excluded otherwise. Seriously, _so what_ if he did? That wasn't his problem, now was it?

"Oh, but you can come, too. We start at a quarter to eight, in my room."

Oh, so now the roles were reversed? Aqua and Ven had planned to do something fun together and he had been invited at the last minute, because they probably felt oh so sorry for him. And they both laughed at Terra behind his back. He just knew that. He would get Ven for all this later. And yes, he knew it was very childish and unreasonable of him to feel that way and think that way. He also knew that it was low to only blame Ven for this, but he couldn't ignore this incident, or just forgive him and forget about it. Terra just wasn't like that, nor would he ever be.

He grimaced when he had made his decision. "No, thanks. I think I'll pass," he replied, gruffly.

"Oh."

At this point, he was far too angry to see how Aqua's face fell at his blunt response. "By the way, your room has a beautiful color. I never knew you liked pink," she said.

He nearly twisted his neck when he quickly turned his head to gawk at her.

He stroked his neck and squeezed his eyes into narrow splits. "What are you talking about?"

Last time he had checked, his bedroom wasn't pink, but white and yellow.

"Go see it for yourself if you don't believe me."

Terra hesitated slightly, before he got up from his comfortable seat and walked out of the library. To be honest, he had a really bad feeling about this. He didn't want to admit it, but secretly he was terrified of what disaster he would encounter in his bedroom. After all, pink wasn't exactly his kind of color. He began to run faster automatically.

The door was ajar. He flung it open and immediately wished fervently that he hadn't done that. His room was turned into a hell, a pink one at that. A flurry of different shades of pink, shades of which he didn't even know existed, greeted him. He became dizzy and had to cling on to the doorknob in order not to collapse.

It just didn't feel safe anymore. Yet he stepped inside and slammed the door shut with a loud _bang!_, angry at everything and everyone. Someone up there really had to hate his guts. It seemed that the pink paint had dried already. It smelled like bubblegum in his room. He sighed. Great. Just friggin' great. How was supposed to fall asleep now in the midst of this horror?

* * *

It was somewhere near seven o'clock, pm. There were only two people in the kitchen, doing the dishes in pure silence. Aqua washed and Ven dried. They had dined not too long ago, but Terra hadn't showed up for dinner, even though Aqua knew that he had to be hungry. After all, he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. She had a suspicion of why he hadn't done that and that gave her a tremendous sense of guilt. That feeling hadn't diminished when Master Eraqus had looked at her in a strange way when they had happened to make eye contact with each other. She almost felt like he knew that she had something to do with Terra's sudden moodswing.

Almost as if Ven could read her thoughts, he asked, "Hey Aqua?"

"Hmm?"

Aqua kept her gaze on the plate she was holding in her hands, but not because she didn't dare to look Ven in the eyes.

Ven clearly doubted a bit, before he asked, "I was wondering if you know why Terra didn't show up for dinner, because Master Eraqus didn't seem to know it, either. Is he mad or something?"

_Yes, and how..._

She had truly never seen him like this. That look in the blonde's eyes made it impossible for the blue-haired female to lie about it, though. Aqua thought that she should keep this short and concise. It was the best for all of them to only tell Ven about the big lines and omit all the details. This way, Terra wouldn't get mad at her, too, for telling everyone what had happened.

"Probably," she replied, trying to put on a neutral look on her face.

"But why?" he inquired further, tilting his head to the side while locking eyes with her.

She sighed wearily.

So much for the big lines. "I'm not sure, but it could be because he didn't like it that I threw several paint bombs in the color pink in his room."

Which, on second thought, hadn't been such a great idea at all. She had realized that just a little too late. What a bummer.

Ven confirmed that once again by sighing loudly. "Aqua, I may be the youngest of the three of us, but sometimes I seem to stand far above you two with my behavior. And I think that that really says something. When will you guys finally realize that it can cost more than only your friendship and a few teeth with this kind of behavior? And I'm not even talking about how dangerous some of your pranks are. Just think about what happened with Terra almost two weeks ago."

And look, there was the wise lesson of the day again, coming from a walking fortune cookie. Aqua said nothing, not even that it was bad luck that Terra had fallen off the stairs. She had heard this already so often from the same person that she knew everything he said (or would say) from heart by now. Aqua started to wonder how often Terra had to hear this.

"By the way, did you ask Terra to come and watch the movie with us?" he asked, changing the subject all of a sudden.

"Yes, but he said he didn't want to. His exact words were, and I quote: "No, thanks. I think I'll pass." And that was even before he found out about his bedroom and the paint bombs."

"How strange. One would think that someone who had this many movies would actually like a movie night with his two best friends," Ven remarked. "Especially when it's a movie of his own that we're watching."

Aqua nodded slowly. "Yeah, tell me. Sometimes I really have no idea what's going on in his mind," she admitted, sighing.

Then they continued doing the dishes in silence.

* * *

It was a quarter to eight, sharp. Terra paced restlessly back and forth in his bedroom with his hands neatly folded behind his back. He had been doing this for fifteen minutes now. He was getting nervous of himself and his ridiculous thoughts. He really wanted to know what Aqua and Ven were doing at the moment. Would they gossip about him? Neither of them seemed to be the gossip type, but it was quite possible now that he wasn't there with them. That thought made him white hot with anger, again. But they would look very strangely up at him, not to mention see right through him, if he just came barging in into Aqua's room. His pokerface sucked pretty much and he'd never been good at making up excuses. Even thinking about it was stupid. Unless... unless he came up with some credible excuse. But what would be credible enough?

After some deliberation, he came to a final decision. He walked through the door of his bedroom and stood still in front of Aqua's bedroom door. Should he really do this? He lifted up his hand. If he knocked on the door, then it would be too late to back out.

Just when he actually wanted to knock, Aqua opened the door from the other side so that they stood face to face with each other, none of them moving. She blinked her eyes a couple of times with astonishment. He knew that she was very surprised by his sudden appearance and frankly, he couldn't blame her for it.

This time she was the first one to break the awkward silence that had set between them. "Terra? Is there something wrong?"

Terra instantly let his hand fall next to him. "Uh, I just wanted to ask if um..." he began, but his mind went blank. He couldn't think of any good excuse. That was until he noticed the DVD that she held in her hands. "Never mind, actually. Where's Ven?"

"Oh, Ven came to me a few minutes ago telling me that he was really tired from the heavy training today and he asked if I wouldn't mind it if he would sleep a bit earlier instead of watching the movie with me. I said it was no problem at all. That was why I wanted to bring your DVD back. Watching a movie on my own is rather boring, anyway, so here you are."

She extended her hand toward him, but he didn't bother to take the DVD from her. He simply couldn't believe his ears. This opportunity was almost too good to be true. It almost looked like the gods wanted him to go for this new option. Then why would he disappoint them?

"Well, then I'm afraid we just have one choice," he started, sighing melodramatically.

This caught the mage's interest. "Really? And what is that choice?" she asked curiously.

"Well, there is no other choice than that I play the gentleman again and sacrifice my precious free night for you, so you don't have to watch that movie all alone. I hope you're happy now."

Aqua looked at him, stunned at first, and then began to laugh. "Oh, really now? Gosh, that would be very noble of you," she said, sarcastically.

"Oh you know how I am, right? One and all kindness."

Aqua snorted, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, right," she muttered. "In that case, I'm wondering who you are and what you've done to the real Terra."

Terra wasn't deaf, though and said, "Hey, I heard that one!"

"I know. That's why I said it in the first place," she explained, laughing.

She stepped aside to let him go through and then closed the door behind him when he came into her room. Terra looked around, while Aqua walked over to her laptop, which she had connected to her television. He saw that there was already an extra large pack of popcorn, laying on her desk, along with drinks, empty cups, candy and a big bag of crisps. On her bed were bright red heart-shaped pillows. The room itself was about as big as that of Terra's, but so much neater than his. Perhaps that was why it seemed to be much bigger. The wallpaper matched the color of her eyes perfectly and had flowers of a lighter shade of blue imprinted on them. Her quilt was of the same color.

On her desk and bookshelves stood all kinds of girly things, like make-up, gossip magazines and soft-looking, fluffy things. On a small, black square coffee table there were three scented candles; a blue, a pink and a white one, standing on a light blue plate with red and pink rose petals lying around it. When Terra was done with his quick inspection of her room, he saw that Aqua looked at him and smiled sweetly. He immediately tensed involuntarily.

"You have permission to sit down, you know, if that's what you were waiting for," she said teasingly.

Terra began to grin, asking quasi-surprised, "How did you know that?"

"Call it intuition."

He walked to the bed and plopped down on it, leaving enough space for Aqua, who sat down beside him.

"Crisps or popcorn? Or both?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Uh, popcorn," he replied, shrugging.

She handed him a huge bowl of popcorn and leaned back against the soft cushions next to him. Their arms brushed lightly against each other. Both felt like they got electricity through their body and blushed from that action. They said nothing, however. The movie started and on the screen appeared in huge, bright red letters, "**Rush Hour 7**." One of Aqua's favorite actors played in it; **Jackie Man** and **Chris Ducker**.

"Terra?" she asked softly, interrupting his reverie.

"Hmm?"

He couldn't help but notice how close they sat next to each other right now. It made him wonder if she'd noticed that, too. If she did, she didn't seem to be fazed by it at all. Was he really the only one who was affected by it?

"I'm... sorry about your room. The paint disappears automatically after a month."

He surely hadn't expected this, but he was glad to hear it, anyway. "It's... okay. But I want to ask you to use a less painful way for the next time, when you try to make me blind."

Aqua laughed. "That's a promise... So, I take it that you're not angry at me anymore?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Good," she said cheerfully.

That was when they turned their attention to the movie again. It had just started, but pieces of buildings were flying everywhere already and the first chasing between the good guys and the baddies had started.

* * *

Sometime after twelve o'clock at night Ven suddenly woke up, immediately realizing why that had happened. "Wow, gotta go to the toilet," he muttered, incoherently.

He slowly got up and hobbled out of his bedroom, dazed and half asleep. It was a good thing that he knew his way even with his eyes closed, because that spared him a lot of trouble.

After he had done what he had to do, he walked back again, now much more at ease. It was true what they said; when you needed to go to the toilet, there wasn't anything else that you could think of at that moment.

Right at that moment, however, he saw a dim light from the corner of his eyes. He stopped walking at once. It came from Aqua's room. Wasn't she done watching that movie yet? Ven softly knocked on the door, in order not to wake anyone else at the castle, but there was no response. Well, that was weird. Maybe she had fainted! Or something... He should check up on her, just to be sure. Slowly and cautiously, he opened the door and stuck his head around the corner.

What he saw then, surprised him so much that he almost uttered a cry, but he managed to control himself. Aqua was sitting on her bed, but was fast asleep. Her head lay on Terra's shoulder, who also slept like a baby.

Ven started to grin at that sight. It wasn't like you saw that every day, or in this case, every night. He should actually take a picture of this moment with the title, "Their First Step." He shook that thought away as quickly as it had come into his head and went to Aqua's cupboard to pick up the extra blanket that she kept at the bottom of the shelf, because they could feel cold at night, now that they both slept on the covers and couldn't use that.

He draped it over his two best friends, gently, so they wouldn't wake up. Aqua stirred slightly, but fortunately, she didn't open her eyes. Quietly, he slipped out of Aqua's bedroom again. He was sure of one thing; Terra would be stiff as hell tomorrow. Oh well, at least Terra had the girl... eventually... probably. If he did his best for her. It had to be. If you looked at it this way, then he was the only big loser here. Too bad he wouldn't be able to see their faces when they would wake up tomorrow. Apparently, you couldn't always be lucky.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ The names that are in bolden letters, are of people and movies that exist. And that's not allowed in fics right? So I changed one letter of their names, thinking that I can get away with that. :) Oh, and last time I checked, 'Rush Hour 7' didn't exist yet.**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Where are my shoes?" Can you guess where the shoes are? I bet you can't, hehe. Here's a tip: it's somewhere you wouldn't look/expect at all.**


	10. Where are my shoes?

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. Hope you like! Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: VaynexArabella4ever, Retro Nami, CrimsonDarkness 0013, BloodyAphrodite, Shanny-Boo, Sovereign Beta and Aqua StormXIV**

* * *

_~ "Well, I can't help it. I was still young and an idiot back then. It won't happen again," Terra reasoned. ~_

* * *

As it happened, Aqua was the first one to wake up the next day. The blue-haired mage didn't know whether it had been the sunlight in the room, that seeped through the curtains (she made a mental note to pin them together next time, because sometimes, it really was annoying to wake up like this), or because her neck hurt so much. Or perhaps it was a combination of both. Seriously, though, what had she been doing in her sleep? And why in the name of Light was she stiff as hell? She hadn't felt like this ever since her first months as a trainee under Master Eraqus's watchful eye. Everything had been new to her and needless to say, she'd had to get used to all that constant moving. Her muscles had been sore for days on end.

She wanted to stay in bed with her eyes closed for a short while (not that she could do anything else if she'd wanted. Not when she was in this kind of condition), but when she heard a soft and steady breathing beside her, she quickly changed her mind. Pretty startled, she opened her eyes and almost proceeded to fall right out of her bed out of pure shock when she saw Terra's sleeping form. Fortunately, alcohol was prohibited by Master Eraqus, otherwise she would have wondered if something had happened last night and then probably had to ask Terra about it. She shuddered at the thought only.

The first thing she noticed, was that the the television was off and her spare blanket lay around them. Who had gotten that out of her closet in the first place? Terra himself... or someone else? Had it been Eraqus Master? All the color drained from her face as she thought of that possibility. She would find out soon enough, she was sure of that. If it really had been their Master, then she would know it by looking at the expression on his face.

Well, there was no point in staying in bed. She wouldn't dare to face Terra for the rest of her life if he woke up at this moment, with her looking at him. Carefully, she got up so she wouldn't still wake him up. She opened the door softly, after she packed a few belongings she needed from her room and went straight to the bathroom to freshen up.

* * *

After she had taken a nice hot shower, - she really had been in need for that; the warm water had been a cure for her stiffened back muscles and she was finally fully awake now - she walked straight to the kitchen, in case Terra still was asleep in her bed (was it just her or did that really sound wrong in a way?), which apparently was the case, because Ven was the only one who was in the kitchen.

As soon as the spiky-haired boy noticed her, a goofy smile appeared on his face and in a suspiciously happy tone he cried, "Good morning, Aqua. Did you sleep well?"

She looked at him sharply, sensing that the mischievous tone he had used and the way too cheerful twinkle in his eyes wouldn't promise any good for her, _at all_. The bluenette teen decided to ignore it for the time being. Who knows, maybe he picked up the hint and played along. She certainly hoped so. For now, it was the best to keep her head cool and answer his oh so innocent questions.

"I guess so," she replied quietly. "You?"

Meanwhile, she walked to the kitchen cabinet to grab a spoon and a bowl. The cornflakes and milk were already standing on the table, courtesy of Ven.

"_Mwah_. But then again, I didn't have a handsome person beside me, whose shoulder I could use as a pillow. You lucky girl."

Aqua immediately began to blush and almost let the bowl fall out of her already shaking hands. She thanked the heavens that that hadn't happened, otherwise that would've made her look even more suspicious. But how did Ven know? Had he seen them last night? Was he the one who had turned her TV off and put the spare blanket around them? If that was the case, then at least that fact took a big part of her worries away.

She walked over to the table and sat down on her fast seat. "I don't know what you're talking about," she noted, feigning innocence, but she didn't dare to look at him.

"Oh, but I think you do," he said teasingly.

At this, her head snapped up and she narrowed her cerulean eyes at the younger teen. "Ven, _stop it_."

"Stop _what_?" he asked, just as innocently as ever.

His overly blue eyes became the size of saucers as he feigned innocence. Aqua, however, didn't fall for this trick. She knew very well that he knew very well what they both were talking about.

"This nonsense," she replied flatly.

"But it's the truth!"

"No, it's n-"

Their bickering was interrupted at once by the sound of footsteps walking down the stairs. They both stopped talking abruptly and looked at the doorway simultanously. The footsteps belonged to none other than a grinning Terra. Aqua's heartbeat quickened instantly and she quickly looked away when their eyes met by chance. Fortunately for her, Ven didn't see that, otherwise he would make another comment and Aqua certainly wasn't in the mood for that. She didn't know what Terra had thought of it, though, and that fact made her crazy.

"Hey there, sleepy head. Did you sleep well?" Ven immediately asked, before Terra even had the chance to enter the kitchen.

"Oh yes, I slept very well, actually. In fact, I haven't slept this good for years," he admitted, smiling a little. He winked at Ven and ran a gloveless hand through his dark, messy hair. Aqua became even redder, if that was possible. "Well I'm gonna go take a shower. I'll see you guys later."

With that being said, the brunet male turned around again and made his way to the stairs. Needless to say, Aqua was more than relieved when Terra walked away and she started to breathe again. How strange, she hadn't even noticed that she had been holding her breath all this time.

* * *

Fortunately, the rest of the day nothing exciting happened. Master Eraqus hadn't spared them with today's training, though. They were all exhausted, as usual. Aqua had even taken off her boots and was now looking for more comfortable shoes. There was only one problem, though; she couldn't find any of her shoes anywhere, and she had been looking for them almost everywhere in this huge castle. Eventually, she came with the conclusion that perhaps, Ven or Terra knew more about this strange event.

She immediately went to the living room, where she knew they were chilling at the moment. As it was, Ven lay on the couch, looking like a cute, but pathetic puppy and Terra was slumped beside him, his head leaning on the back of the couch and his eyes closed. Both his feet rested on the coffee table, as his arms were crossed over his chest. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his chest rose up and down in a slow and steady rythm. He almost looked as if he was asleep, but she knew that he wasn't. Her heart involuntarily skipped a beat when he saw him like this. She had read somewhere that sometimes, a person could be attracted to another person by smelling his unique odor, which was, with other words, his sweat.

Wait... why the _heck_ was she thinking all of that at this moment? This was scary. It had to be the tough training, there was no other explanation for that. Either that, or she was slowly getting insane. Or maybe a little of both.

Almost as if he had heard her thinking, the earth warrior opened his eyes and looked inquiringly at Aqua. She felt how a blush slowly creeped up her cheeks. She started to wonder what she was doing here in the first place, and Terra staring at her like that, didn't really help her to concentrate.

When she had regained her voice again, she started, "Ehm... Terra, Ven, does one of you know where my shoes are?"

Terra looked down at her bare feet with pink painted nails and then looked back into her eyes again. He raised an eyebrow at her.

Ven was apparently too dead to respond at the moment, for he didn't even move, but Terra certainly wasn't. "Apparently, not on your feet, where they should be. Nice nails by the way. Is pink the new pink these days?" he commented, smirking.

"Don't change the subject," she said, menacingly.

Terra wasn't impressed at all, but he decided to play along, just to annoy Aqua a little bit more. He put his hands up in mock defense, as he said, "Okay, okay. You don't have to freak out like that. It almost looks like you need a vacation, and quick. Now let's see, either your shoes are in your closet, or they're gone."

"Gone?" she repeated, not really understanding him.

"Yes, gone," he said, calmly, nodding.

"Gone, as in where to exactly?" she wanted to know.

He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning back again. "How am I supposed to know? I'm not a shoe expert."

A long-suffering sigh followed. Why was it that nobody ever was serious in this castle? Did the fact that they were all guys have anything to do with that? Probably, but she wasn't sure.

On a much softer tone Terra continued, "But to be honest, I think that Ven has borrowed them from you. The high heels compensate his shortness, you see?"

Aqua rolled her eyes and was about to say something, when Ven beat her to the punch this time. "Oh haha. You're _so_ funny. At least _I'm_ not a clumsy gangling who stumbles over his own feet and then immediately falls off the stairs," he sneered.

_Ouch. Nice comeback. He deserved that one, though. And hey, finally a sign of life. Maybe there was still hope for him._

Aqua tried not to laugh.

"Well, I can't help it. I was still young and an idiot back then. It won't happen again," Terra reasoned.

Ven gave him a look and snorted incredulously. "Terra, that was two weeks ago," he reminded Terra.

"I knew that! As if I don't know that. I was the one who fell off those thirteen stairs! Look, that was just because I couldn't use my hands back then," Terra growled, getting grumpier by every second that passed. "Someone," he paused to give Aqua a devastating look, "had glued my hands to my cheeks, remember?"

"Yeah, because you really need your hands to walk, instead of your feet," Ven muttered sarcastically.

_Once again, ouch. Ven's really good at this today. And that makes 2-0 for Ven, _Aqua thought, rather amused.

"Yo, ever heard of _balance_? That's what your hands are for," Terra spoke, defended himself.

"Never mind, guys. I'll find it on my own," she said, hastily, before they would start to fight here.

_Ugh! Apparently, if you want to do something good, you have to do it yourself._

She quickly walked out of the living room, before anyone could stop her and hurried back to her bedroom. It was the only place where she hadn't looked yet, simply because her shoes just couldn't be there. Maybe Terra was right, though. Perhaps Master Eraqus had placed her shoes in her closet. All these shoes couldn't have disappeared just like that, right?

Sighing, she opened her bedroom door when she saw the horror. Aqua didn't know if she should laugh or cry at the sight of all her shoes that seemed to be glued with the soles to the ceiling, spread across the ceiling. On her desk was her pot of superglue with a note lying beside it. She walked slowly towards it and picked up the latter, meanwhile fearing the worst. It said,

_Dear Aqua,_  
_As you can see, I borrowed your glue to make the masterpiece of the day. Here are your precious shoes. At first, I wanted to put them all in Ven's room, but I knew that it would take centuries before you would find it and I really wouldn't want you to go through all that emotional stuff, 'cause I know how important shoes are to women. Oh well.  
Have a nice day! =)_  
_~ Terra_

"Oh, Terra. You've got to be kidding me," she groaned, pretty annoyed.

Seriously, she had no idea how he had come up with this idea, but he was the one who was going to remove them from the ceiling, otherwise she would tell everything to Master Eraqus. That would just serve him another month of detention, which he really deserved. So the guy wanted to play it as childish as that? Fine, she would give him what he had asked for. It was time for revenge again!

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Itching." Guess what's gonna happen?**


	11. Itching

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. Hope you like! And wow, we've had exactly half of our journey (full of pranks and what not). Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: CrimsonDarkness 0013, BloodyAphrodite, Shanny-Boo, UltraWonderBoy and Aqua StormXIV**

* * *

_~ "Let's see if you can think clearly when your ass seems to be on fire, literally." ~_

* * *

The three young wielders of the Keyblade were outside on the sunny garden, laying in the grass close to the large, brightly splashing fountains, doing nothing but bathing in the sun. They had stopped training earlier, simply because it was too difficult to train with the heat wave. It was really hard to imagine that in some other worlds people were fasting this month, almost punishing themselves with not eating anything until the sun had set. It was called Ramadan, or something that sounded like that. How they managed to do so without starving, or at least fainting, or go into a deep coma, was a mystery.

Fortunately, Master Eraqus fully understood that it was madness to continue any longer today. In fact, he had been the one who had suggested to stop the training.

He had said something remarkable with it, though. "We stop earlier today. Mind you, if you don't sleep in your own room for the rest of the time of being in this castle, I'll never do this anymore."

This had only been for Terra and Aqua and they both knew it very well. They had both become bright red, and they had bowed their heads, - they didn't dare to look their Master in the eye - mumbling, "Yes, Master."

He hadn't sound mad, or something, but they knew that he was being serious. It hadn't really been Aqua's fault, because Terra had been the one who had fallen asleep in_ her_ room. Although, it couldn't be called Terra's fault, either. It wasn't like something had happened, anyway. Still, she couldn't blame Master Eraqus for suspecting it, if that was what he was doing.

"Terra, what the_ hell_ are you doing?"

Ven's unexpected question let her return to reality. Aqua immediately saw what he was talking about. Terra had gotten up and entertained them now with a rather remarkable performance. He hopped around like some wild monkey, scratching himself faster and faster. Aqua smiled mischievously. Apparently, the itching powder had done its work quite nicely and she wasn't feeling sorry for him at all... well, maybe just a little bit, but he didn't have to know that, right?

"Unbelievable, first a weird snake dance in the kitchen, now a very poor imitation of a wild monkey... - if that's what he's trying to show us - Gee, I wonder what we'll get next time. A wild rhino? Honestly, I really don't want to, but I'm seriously starting to worry about his mental condition," a startled Ven muttered.

Aqua giggled. Yeah, it really had to look weird for someone who didn't understand what exactly was happening at the moment.

"It won't... _stop_!" Terra managed to utter.

"What is he talking about?" Ven wondered.

Meanwhile, Aqua had found a new way to make the situation even funnier. "Oh no! Terra, they must be those biting red ants! Quick, jump in the water to shake them off! They hate water."

At once, Terra did exactly what she had said and jumped headlong into the fountain. The birds that had been bathing in the cool water, flew up, startled by Terra, and twittered indignantly at him when they landed in a high tree, guessing that that was a safer place to stay. Terra, who had been submerged, came back above water again and spat a jet of cool water out of his mouth. Aqua's tip clearly had worked. He stepped out of the fountain, almost falling over in the process.

He saw that Ven had gotten up as well, possibly out of fear for the red, biting creatures which were mentioned by Aqua before, but Aqua herself was still sitting on the grass, looking at him with a calm expression on her face.

"Thanks," he said, really meaning it from the bottom of his heart. Extremely curious, he asked, "How did you know that water would help? Did you read it in a book?"

He brushed some of his chocolate-colored hair that stack on his face out of his eyes to look at her.

"No, and I didn't know that. I just wanted to see if you would do what I asked you to do, that's all. And on the box wasn't written if it was waterproof, so I went along with it," she said, shrugging nonchalantly.

_"_Oh, okay. So you've... _What?"_ he cried out incredulously. "But you... And I... and then..."

He closed his mouth again, more confused than ever.

She fished something out of her pocket and cried, "Catch!" while throwing it at him.

He caught it with one hand. In a small, empty and white box was written in red and yellow block letters, "Itching Powder 3000." Suddenly he understood a lot more.

"And there were no ants, so you can sit back on the grass again, Ven." She turned her attention back to Terra and added, "That was for what you've done with my shoes, in case you were wondering."

Aqua could swear that steam came out of Terra's ears that even seemed to dry his soaking wet clothes, as soon as he heard that. Uh-oh, that was clearly not a good sign. When he slowly began to walk towards her, she quickly got up and started running for her life. He immediately started chasing her. Luckily for her, he wasn't as fast as Ven, because then she would have had no chance to escape from him at all. The fact that he had fallen into the water was also in her favor, because now she was much lighter than he was, so she could move faster.

Terra stopped running after some time and let himself fall on the grass with a sigh, slightly panting and out of breath. "_Just wait_," he muttered threateningly, but he knew that she couldn't hear him anymore.

"Whoa, giving up already?" Ven asked teasingly.

Terra gave him one of his famous looks. "She wished! I only stopped, because it would be an attempt to suicide, moving this much in this heat wave."

"Uh-huh. I totally believe you. Boy, you're even dumber than I thought."

"Say that again," Terra growled, sitting up again and propping up his elbow.

"Why on earth did you jump into the water in the first place?"

"Let's see if you can think clearly when your ass seems to be on fire, literally. And hearing that they were red ants didn't really help that much, either. Believe me, you have no idea how refreshing it was to jump into that water after what I've been through."

"Eeew, spare me the details. I don't think I want to know," Ven said.

A horrified expression set on his face.

Terra snorted, muttering, "Idiot."

"Look who's saying that," Ven retorted.

"Hmph," was all Terra wanted to say for now.

And with that, the subject was closed, for now. He leaned back again to dry in the warm sun. At least the itching had stopped.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ And once again, sorry for the shortness. I'm afraid that all the other chapters won't be any longer (with small exeptions here and there).**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Peace?" Guess what's gonna happen?**

**Reviews are highly appreciated!**


	12. Peace?

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. Hope you like! This is another quick update, because of the shortness of the chapters (yes, I really feel guilty about that). Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, Shanny-Boo and BloodyAphrodite**

* * *

_~ "Hey Terra, do you really want to see something shocking?" she whispered in his ear. ~_

* * *

_Fortunately, the heat wave hadn't last that long, otherwise it would've been unbearably hot_, Aqua thought, quite relieved, while she stared at Ven and Master Eraqus from the huge window of the library, who were in the middle of a training session. Even at such a great distance she could clearly see the very concentrated look at Ven's face. That frown on his young face seemed to be so out of place, completely out of character. It just wasn't like the real Ven, at all. She didn't know this serious Ven that well. She did know the Ven who always laughed and was cheerful and in a good mood, though, and she was really happy about that. He was one of the good things in this castle.

Behind her, she heard footsteps, but she didn't bother to look and see who it was. That wasn't necessary. In the window she could already see who it was; Terra's reflection became bigger and bigger, as said brunet approached her quietly.

He walked slowly towards her and stood still next to her, watching the scene outside, too.

Eventually, he was the first one who broke the comfortable silence that had set between the two childhood friends. Clearing his throat, he called out, "Aqua?"

"Hmm?"

She turned toward him and looked at him inquiringly, cocking her head slightly.

He took a deep breath to steady himself before he continued, "I've been thinking, and uh...well..."

"Don't hurt yourself," she quickly joked, which earned him a roll of his cobalt blue eyes.

He didn't say anything anymore, though. Apparently, he didn't know how he should continue, since he stopped talking abruptly. He had made her curious, however.

"Yes, go on, I'm listening," she said, encouraging him.

Fortunately, it worked.

"Well, I think it's better if we call a truce and start acting normal to each other again. I mean, that might just be the best for all of us, don't you think?"

She raised her eyebrows incredulously. Terra, who wanted to give up the pranks he had in his mind? It wasn't that strange that she didn't believe him. She wondered how and even_ if_ he could explain that, because this was even more out of character than Ven's serious look. Could this be one of his new tricks? She didn't know, but with Terra, one had to be extra cautious.

"May I ask why you come up with that now?" she asked him, a neutral look appearing on her face.

He was up to something, that was sure. The question was, what could it be this time?

"Because I just realized that we've almost reached the point to where we can lose our friendship for something insignificant and I uh... don't want that," he replied gravely.

How funny. Hadn't Ven said something like that to her, too, not too long ago? Or had Terra come to this conclusion just because he was afraid for her next step and didn't want any further revenge? Maybe she had to give Terra a chance, though, although it could be another trick of him. Nobody should trust that boy, he had proved that in the last few weeks. She had to take that chance, if she really wanted some peace, though. Especially because she was running out of ideas to get back to him. Oh, and of course because she believed in Karma. Didn't they say that 'What goes around, comes around?' If that really was true - and she didn't doubt that for a second - then maybe it was better to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Okay then. I'm sure I'll regret it some day, if not _today_, but I agree with you. I will behave, but only if you do, too," she promised solemnly. "Promise?"

He nodded and extended his right hand toward her. "You have my word. So, do we have a deal now?" he asked with a small smile.

That smile, which lit up his whole face, was all it took from her to make her say yes. It made her wonder if he was aware of that fact.

"Deal," she replied, smiling back at him.

She took his hand to shake it, just like she was supposed to, but she immediately received a huge shock that coursed through body. It was so intense and surprising that she just couldn't think normally anymore and even wobbled on her feet for some time, until the sudden and unexplained pain slowly faded. The brunet boy - Aqua refused to call him a man, even though physically this was contradicted - laughed and showed her the ring on his finger, the source of the shock.

Aqua immediately scowled. Of course. She should've known. That she had bought that, one of the oldest pranks of the book that existed. She almost wanted to slap herself on her head to her stupid action.

"Quite uh... _shocking_, huh? I can't believe that you didn't see that coming," he admitted, grinning. "Oh well. Guess you can't be smart all the time. Not that I'm complaining, haha."

He turned around and wanted to walk away again, still snickering at the prank that he'd pulled, but Aqua had other thoughts. She quickly grabbed him by his upper arm before he could escape without being punished. It was then that she noticed that his upper arm felt as muscular as it looked like.

_Wait... what? No, can't be thinking like that. Focus, Aqua!_

"Hey Terra, do you really want to see something shocking?" she whispered in his ear.

Little did she know that thanks to her sudden change of move, the male teen's heart rate went up immediately and the small hairs at the back of his neck were standing straight up. His legs started to shake too. They felt pretty much like spaghetti strings right now.

"Then watch this," she said softly.

She let go of him, but he could still feel the imprint of her hand on his arm, although there was nothing striking to see. She raised her arms and loudly proclaimed, "Vivatis Libra, vivatis!"

That had to be something in Latin. The brunet wondered what that meant. Something with books and life. Suddenly, dozens of books were flying off the shelves, directly to a shocked Terra's direction. That pretty much answered his questions...unfortunately.

Then, he realized what was going to happen. "Uh-oh," he muttered, before he started to run.

But it was too late. The books didn't spare him and beat him on his head. He held his arms protectively around his head as he was driven out of the library by them. That would earn his some more bruises by the end of the day. Then, all the books flew back to their own shelf, because their mission had been a great success.

"Never underestimate the power of a good book," Aqua spoke, smiling a little.

She turned around again and stared out of the big window at the scene that was happening below, just like she had done a few minutes ago. It almost looked like nothing had happened in the meantime, but the opposite was true. For Aqua, there hadn't really happened anything, anyway. Still thinking of the shoes, she vowed to ensure that she would make each of Terra's prank backfire, until she thought that they were even. No, she wouldn't stop earlier. That was a promise to herself that she would keep.

Flying books were only the beginning. Terra had no idea what she truly was capable of, but he would find out soon enough.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Hmm, I love good books. What about you?**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Terra's Closet." Can you guess what's gonna happen? It's always fun to read your thoughts on this. Some of them give me new ideas for this story too. :)**

**Review, please. You know you want to. ;)**


	13. Terra's Closet

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. Hope you like! Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, UltraWonderBoy, Axrat, Shariark, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Shanny-Boo and BloodyAphrodite**

* * *

_~ "Terra, you shouldn't believe everything you hear, you know?" she said. ~_

* * *

Terra sat in his bedroom, reading a book about many useful and different methods of attacking your targets with a Keyblade. It was all based on how to use your strength and match that with your opponent's, which happened to be Terra's strongest weapon... no pun intended. At first, he hadn't thought that he would like the book, since he was forced to read it by Master Eraqus, but the exact opposite was true. Now that he'd started reading this, he just wasn't able to stop anymore. He'd even skipped lunch for it and that had never happened before. It was funny, really, because normally, he would be the one to tease Aqua about being a bookworm. And now, he was doing exactly the same. If Aqua would see him now, then he surely wouldn't hear the end of it. It was so interesting, that he literally jumped when there was a knock on the door.

His heart skipped a beat, making it feel like a mini heart attack. "Yes?" he cried, wondering who that might be.

Something told him, though, that it was probably Ven, wondering why he hadn't shown up during lunch.

At that moment, the door opened. Surprisingly enough, it had been Aqua who had knocked.

Terra immediately got up from his comfortable position when he saw her, sitting up and leaning on his elbows. "Aqua!" he said surprised. Well, it was more like he had cried it. He ignored the faint blush that threatened to appear on his cheeks, as he continued, "What... brings you here?"

Aqua didn't seem to notice that he was slightly uncomfortable, or perhaps she just chose to ignore it. Either way, the brunet male was more than thankful for that.

"Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Were you reading?" the blue-haired mage asked, clearly surprised.

"Yeah, more or less..." he admitted, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

This made her smile. "I see. Who's the bookworm now, huh?"

Terra rolled his eyes. "And somehow, I knew you were going to say that."

"I'm sure you did. Anyways, Terra, the reason I'm here is because Master Eraqus said we had to wear some old clothes and then come to the living room," she said.

This made him even more surprised. What kind of plan did the Master have?

"Why if I may ask?" he inquired, curiously.

"You know, I have no idea. He didn't say anything else and we didn't ask him to explain himself, either."

Terra ran his hand through his chocolate-colored, spiky hair. It still sounded strange to him. Maybe it was another prank of Aqua, he couldn't ignore that possibility. If that was the case...then he wouldn't give her the satisfaction that she had pulled another prank on him without him knowing it.

He had made his dicision; he would make it extra hard for Aqua this time. "Oh. Well, I don't really have any old clothes," he said slowly, hoping to ruin any mischievous plan she might have had in mind.

"That's no problem at all. I can help you with finding something suitable, okay?"

He eyed her, somewhat suspiciously. Although Aqua was known for her kindness, he didn't trust her that much anymore. Not after all those little incidents with glue, paint, hair dye, make-up and what not. Those just weren't coincidences.

"Uh..thanks?"

"No problem," she said, smiling friendly.

Almost too friendly, the brunet thought. He frowned at that. Something seemed to be so out of place that it wasn't even funny anymore, but he couldn't really put his finger on it. But what could possibly go wrong this time? Exactly: nothing. Unless she was hiding something in her pockets that could ruin his day, but that seemed quite unlikely.

He got up and walked over to his cupboard. "Don't get shocked or anything, 'cause my closet probably isn't as neat as yours," he warned in advance, before opening the closet.

She laughed and waved it away, as if she wasn't impressed by it at all. "That's okay. My closet isn't always clean, either and I don't expect from you that everything should look spick and span. Not after I've seen what a mess your room is," she spoke, looking around with a raised eyebrow to emphasis it.

Terra grinned. "Thank goodness! What a relief."

He opened one closet door and immediately got a shower of colored toys and tennis balls on him, before he could do anything about it. He quickly jumped away and rubbed his hurt head, but he accidentally tripped and fell over a tennis ball during the process, landing with a heavy thud on the cold floor. He groaned, as he sat up with some difficulty. That just hurt!

"Wow, Terra. When you said that your closet isn't that neat, I hadn't expected to encounter such a disaster!" she said, bursting out laughing. "And I didn't know you still liked playing with such toys. It seems that even you have a little boy deep down inside of you, that sometimes just wants to get out. I don't know if I should find that sad or adorable."

He scowled at her, not seeing what was so funny about stuffing his closet full of toys he had never used, let alone _seen_, before. He wondered where she had gotten all this stuff, anyway.

"It was you who did all this, right?" he asked, irritably.

"Maybe," was the mysterious reply.

"_When?_" he then inquired, narrowing his cobalt-colored eyes into thin slits.

"This morning, when you went showering."

Great, so now he had to look for some guard, so she couldn't get into his room? Locking it wouldn't really help, since, well she had a Keyblade, which could open every locked door. Suddenly, she gasped and her eyes became as big as saucers.

_Now what? Do I even want to know?_

"Terra!" she said, aghast. "Is that... a dirty magazine?"

At once, all the color drained from his face. Dirty magazines? In his room? Where? He had never touched one before, let alone read it. Okay, that was exaggerated, but he didn't have any in his bedroom. He was sure of that.

He looked around his room, but he couldn't find one anywhere. "W-wait! I can explain everything!" he uttered, still looking around frantically.

Although he really couldn't explain it, for he actually had no idea what these magazines were doing in his bedroom, or how they got there in the first place, but he knew one thing for sure, they weren't his.

"You're disgusting, you know that? I had never expected this from you," she said angrily.

"They're not mine! I swear I-" he started, his hands raised in defence.

"No, they're probably Ven's, right? Or no, even better, Master Eraqus'!" she retorted, interrupting him.

"No, I just..."

Terra didn't know what to say. There wasn't much left to say, anyway. She wouldn't believe him.

She walked to the door and turned around. "Oh, and about those old clothes, never mind already."

He sighed when she was gone and the door was slammed shut behind her. As if he hadn't had enough bruises already. He quickly got up and ran out of his bedroom to find Aqua. He didn't have to go too far, though, because she was leaning against the wall beside his door, her arms crossed.

She looked at him and he saw that she was grinning. "Terra, you shouldn't believe everything you hear, you know?" she said.

He frowned, wondering what had caused her sudden change of mood. Only a few seconds ago, she had looked as though she wanted to kill him with her bare hands.

"What are you talking about?"

"Those magazines. You reacted even more shocked than I did, - which was kinda funny - but had you spotted them anywhere?"

"No," he replied slowly, scratching the back of his head.

He didn't really get what she wanted to make clear.

"Then why did you think there were dirty magazines in your room in the first place? Because you had hidden them somewhere, anyway? It would explain why you started panicking like that. Did I just find out a dirty secret about you?"

Her grin became wider as he blushed. "Of course not! But you said-"

"I just wanted to see how you would react, that's all," she explained. "It wouldn't be a sin if you read dirty magazines. You're a guy after all. Besides, it's not really my business what kind of... literature you like to read, anyway. So do as you please."

He blinked his eyes in surprise. "...You're really bad," he said finally.

"Tell me something I don't know already," she said, as she walked down the stairs.

That he actually fell for that! He still couldn't believe it.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ ****I don't know if it's just me or not, but reading it again, it looks so...forced (which it was), but deleting it wouldn't be a good idea, because then the whole plan I had in my head wouldn't fit in the story... so...yeah.**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Chocolate and Whipped Cream." Some of you have been waiting for that one, right? Can you guess what's gonna happen? :) Oh and mind you, from now on the updates won't be as speedy as first (if you can call this speedy...). I'm trying to finish this story before school starts for me, but I can't promise anything. And somehow, I'm not good with deadlines if it isn't for school. Strange, huh?**

**Push the review button, please. You know you want to. ;)**


	14. Chocolate and Whipped Cream

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this one-shot, which takes place before KH BBS. Hope you like! Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: junebaby92, Shanny-Boo, BloodyAphrodite, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Aqua StormXIV, Sovereign Beta, Revolution Remix IX, and UltraWonderBoy**

* * *

_~ She did almost exactly what Terra had done earlier. Terra had trouble with standing on his feet. To be honest, he had never thought this prank would end like this. No matter what he did, she always was one step ahead of him and that fact made him crazy. ~_

* * *

Aqua was heading to her bedroom to get a new pen. The one she had been using before, didn't work anymore, so she had thrown it away, after many attempts to get it work again. She always found it really annoying, not to mention frustrating, when her pen didn't work, for strangely enough, she was always doing something very important and she didn't want to get disturbed when it happened, just like today. She had been making a summary of the most important things that she had learned this year from her wise Master. She did this every three months and always kept the epitomes to read it and make another epitome of her epitome. Call it lame, but she did memorize everything she wanted to know this way. At least she would know all the theory she had learned from her head so she wouldn't forget something important during the Master Qualification Exam. She knew that it would only help her even more to keep her head cool. That realization always eased her mind.

This made her wonder how far Terra was with studying things, since Ven was still too young and inexperienced to participate this time. But knowing the lazy brunet, she figured that he hadn't even started yet. That was so typical of him; always being laidback in such things. Despite the fact that that annoyed her immensely sometimes, she knew that that was still one of the main reasons why she liked him so much.

Aqua then noticed that her bedroom door was open. How strange. The blue-haired mage was sure that she had closed the door behind her when she had left her bedroom this morning. She frowned slightly. Had Terra put something in her bedroom in revenge for all the stuff she had gotten out of the attic and then stuffed in his closet? It still was a small mystery what those toys were actually doing in the attic, being stuffy and all, because Master Eraqus didn't seem to have a thing for such toys. But if it hadn't been his, then how did the get them and to whom did those toys belong?

But then again, old and smart people always were a bit eccentric. Just look at Professor Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series, her favorite books. He was the living proof. Dumbledore liked to get woolen socks for Christmas and often said the strangest things, which were true, but that was beside the point, because it still made one question his mental health. Not that Master Eraqus was old. No, of course he wasn't. Not compared to Dumbledore, who probably was over the two hundred, even though that was impossible.

_Yeah, as if spells like "Alohomora," "Flippendo," "Accio," "Amnesia Completa," "Wingardium Leviosa" and "Lumos" actually are possible in real life_, she thought sarcastically. _Man, I've been reading those books too much, but they're so good and addictive. Look at me, I'm even starting to talk to myself... and losing an argument with myself... okay, this is awkward._

Aqua had learned something very important in the past few years, though; if it was about Terra, then one should always be extra careful with everything. One should never give him the benefit of the doubt, because he could always surprise you with something... surprising. How typical.

She took a deep breath to steady herself, fearing that what she would encounter would be very bad, and pushed the door open to step inside. Just at that moment, she felt how something, that probably had been balancing on her bedroom door, fell on top of her head. Something wet and cool slowly trickled down and spread from her head down on the rest of her face. It made her shiver, because it felt like something really nasty. It moved much slower than water, but faster than syrup. It was exactly in between those two. At least, that was what she thought, because she honestly had never had any syrup on her head. Water was another story, however. Oh, she was diverging from the main subject. The substance was dark brown and it smelled a lot like...

"Chocolate?" Aqua said, surprised.

Her cerulean eyes widened. That was seriously the last thing she had expected to find on her head.

"It's something that women like a lot, right?" Terra's whispered in her ear.

She gasped softly, but still audibly, startled by his sudden appearance. Aqua turned around quickly to face him. The liquid chocolate splashed in all directions as she did so; on the floor, on her door, and on Terra's cheek and the tip of his nose, which actually looked quite... adorable.

She didn't have much time to enjoy this sight, though, because the next thing she saw - which was unfortunately far too late - was that a grinning Terra was aiming a can with whipped cream on her, ready to spray. "You are _not_ going to do with that what I think you have in mind right now," Aqua said sharply, pointing at him with a finger.

She quickly stepped back and almost proceeded to fall over her own feet. Aqua always got clumsy as hell when he was around her.

"Oh no? Then think again."

His smile became a tiny bit wider. There was only one thought that ran through her mind at that moment, _Uh-oh. _

Before Aqua could step back some more, or put her arms in front of her face for protection, she had the entire contents of the can all over herself, thanks to Terra. When he was done with spraying it all over her, he slowly stroked the side of her face with his forefinger and middle finger, ever so softly wiping a bit of chocolate away. He started by her temple and went down her soft cheek, taking the time to do so and enjoying the sudden rush of his blood that ran through his veins. She got goosebumps from the touch. The bluenette started feeling warm and cold at the same time, and the butterflies in her stomach came back to life again.

He licked his fingers. "Mmm, this tastes really great! It has that little bit of extra that I usually miss," he said.

Fortunately, Aqua's face was hidden behind all the whipped cream and chocolate, otherwise he would've been able to see the deep blush that had appeared on her cheeks. The next thing she knew was that Terra already had turned around and walked away from her. She decided that the search for a new pen that could wait for a little while. First she had to take a shower. Or get a spoon, because it was a shame to wash off all the chocolate and cream with water. That was when she suddenly got a better idea.

Luckily, she had her voice back again. "Hey Terra?"

"Hmm?"

"Look what I've got for you, Mr. Think Again."

Surprised at her sudden change in attitude, he turned to look at her and did a double-take. All the chocolate and whipped cream had disappeared magically from Aqua's body. Instead, it was hovering in the air and came towards Terra's direction. He knew that running away from it was useless. Running away from magic - no, from Aqua's magic, which always kicked ass! - was one of the dumbest things you could do in your life, since you would only delay what was bound to happen, anyway. That, and he kinda sucked at magic himself, so fighting back wasn't an option, either. He closed his eyes and waited until he would get it all over him. Nothing happened, however. Utterly flabbergasted, he opened his eyes again. Aqua grinned evilly and this time, he did get all the whipped cream and chocolate over him. Just great. He glared daggers at her.

"What? I think it's fun when you actually see it coming. That's more fun, you see?" she explained, sounding oh so innocent, but Terra didn't buy that anymore.

"For who?" he muttered incoherently.

Aqua simply chose to ignore that comment and continued, "Well, that look on your face really was priceless. Too bad I didn't have a camera with me. Oh well, maybe next time, right?"

She walked over to where he was standing. This time, she was the one who slowly run her slender fingers across his jaw line and throat. Aqua did almost exactly what Terra had done earlier. Terra had much trouble with standing on his feet. To be honest, he had never thought that this prank would end like this. No matter what he did, she always was one step ahead of him and that fact made him crazy.

"Mmm, you're right, this actually_ is_ great and now I taste that little bit extra that you were talking about, too."

Smiling a bit, she walked away, looking considerably happier than first. Terra took another breath. This wasn't good, at all. Each time she came near him, he seemed to freeze instantly. It was as though his brains couldn't functionate properly anymore. He had no idea how he should act around her and she clearly used that against him. Aqua was just pure evil.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ Sorry, I couldn't help but add the Harry Potter books in this chapter. I'm in a strange mood, so bear with me.**

**The title of the n****ext chapter will be "Wet Carpet." Can you guess what's gonna happen? I bet you can't. :)**

**Oh, and about the last chapter of this story, what do you prefer? Romance, friendship, mystery? (Although I think I already know it, just wanna be sure.) Push the review button and let me know. You know you want to. ;)**


	15. Wet Carpet and Invisible Wire

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story, which takes place before KH BBS. I decided to do 2 pranks in 1 chapter, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten more than 850 words. Well, I hope you'll like this. Enjoy reading! ;D**

**Thanks: ccsakura21, junebaby92, Shanny-Boo, Karma's Slave, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Sovereign Beta, Revolution Remix IX, Aqua Azul, Berry4145, Ashcroitt and Aqua StormXIV**

* * *

_~ This was of course a stupid prank, coming from Aqua. By the looks of it, she had run out of ideas. Where was the sense of imagination? ~_

* * *

It was somewhere after dinnertime. Terra had done the dishes all by himself and was currently heading towards Ven's room, for he had promised the youngest Keyblade wielder that he would help him with some theory he apparently didn't quite understand. Why he had asked for Terra's help this time and not for that of Aqua's, was nothing but a mystery to Terra, since she was much better at explaining things than Terra himself. But then again, was there anything she wasn't good at? He had always thought that he would become a Keyblade Master first, because he had trained the longest under Master Eraqus's eye. Sometimes, however, he thought that Aqua would beat him to it. It just had to, with so much talent and stamina as she had. The Master Qualification Exam was still so far away, though, so he shouldn't worry about it yet, otherwise he was going crazy.

He stopped walking when he saw a bright yellow sign, standing on the floor in front of him. The sign said in big black letters "CAUTION - WET FLOOR!" Only, the word "WET" was crossed out with a red pen. Someone had written neatly in red block letters above that word, "FROZEN."

"Frozen?" Terra repeated, utterly dumbfounded, as he scratched the back of his head.

His dark brown eyebrows almost disappeared into his hairline as he rose them. _'In the summer? Indoors? In a carpeted area? Suuure. Seems like anything is possible these days. Especially with Aqua around.'_

This was of course a stupid prank, coming from Aqua. By the looks of it, she had run out of ideas. Where was the sense of imagination? And now he was supposed to take the other, longer route to Ven's room, right? That was probably the whole idea after this prank. First up the stairs and then to the other side of the castle and then walk through a secret door back to the other side of this floor. Ha, he wouldn't buy this crap. Not this time, that is. Too bad for her, but this time she had been outwitted. He grinned at that thought and marched proudly over the carpet, ignoring the seemingly false warning. His grin disappeared soon enough from his face when he suddenly slipped and landed hard and painfully on his back on the hard, icy ground. It knocked the air out of his lungs in a way that it even hurt.

"Ooow," he groaned miserably.

He tried to sit up on his elbows, but he barely managed. Each time he moved too quick, which he unconciously did all the time, he fell back and he had to start all over again. And the fact that the floor was as cold as ice, didn't help one bit, either. He started shivering with cold. Fortunately, this hadn't happened before he had prepared the prank for Aqua. He wondered when she would find out about it. Something told him that it would be soon enough. After all, Aqua was a bookworm, so that meant that he didn't have to wait for too long.

* * *

Almost at the same time, Aqua went to the library, again. It seemed that she was doing that a lot lately. Well, she had a good excuse for it; the library was one of her favorite places here in the castle. The walk went almost automatically. Even though she was deep in thought, her feet took her to the place where she had to go, as often seemed to happen these times. Another thing that increasingly seemed to happen, was that she was thinking a lot of a certain brunet male: Terra. It was making her crazy. It seemed as if every thought automatically led to Terra after a few seconds, no matter what the subject was about. It was like some kind of a curse, but she had to remain close to see the results of her new prank. She had actually wanted to stop with all those pranks a couple of days ago, but then she thought that Terra would probably think she was too weak, or too much of a softie and he would just laugh at her for the rest of her life. She didn't want that to happen, of course, so they both went along with it, probably until the day that one of them died.

Her train of thoughts was suddenly rudely interrupted when she tripped over something invisible and fell right into the library. Fortunately, she didn't fall over some table, or chair, or something else that would contain lots of pain on her side.

How great was this, she was getting so clumsy that she'd become just like Terra, who also stumbled over his own feet all the time. Oh, very great, and now she involved Terra with this again. When would she finally stop doing that? Why wasn't there some kind of knob that would automatically turn all her thoughts (that involved Terra) off?

She ignored any further thoughts and concerns that had to do with a certain brown-haired teenager and got up gently. When she looked back, there was nobody she could see who could've pushed her. Well, that was weird...

Rather slowly, she crept to the door. When she had reached the threshold, she fell again on the ground, with a thud that went along with a loud, "Oomph!"

This time, she scraped her knees and elbows in the process. She inspected the entrance again, now thoroughly. When she looked closely at it, she saw that a thin, almost invisible thread was stretched in front of the entrance, exactly at the height of her ankles. So that had made her fall.

"Ugh, _very_ funny, Terra," she growled moodily.

Honestly, who else could've done such a thing? For once, she was glad that she had decided to prank Terra today, with the help of some simple, but rather effective ice magic. She crawled to the door and pulled at the rope, so it loosened itself. Terra would pay for this and she knew exactly where she could find him.

_So you think you're being smart, huh? Well, we'll see about that, Terra._

* * *

As if on cue, just when Terra finally had managed to get up from the floor, Aqua decided to show up. That was when they locked eyes with each other.

"You!" they both called at exact the same time, as soon as they spotted each other.

Right after that, a tiny smirk appeared on the faces of the two teenagers. Aqua finally stood still in front of the male teenager, not too far away from him, but also not close enough to be able to slap him (just in case she wouldn't be able to control herself). Apparently, they had been around each other that much, that they had started to look like each other. In terms of thinking, that is.

"You think you're very funny, huh, with your supposedly humorous and childish pranks?" Aqua cried heatedly.

This only caused Terra to quirk an eyebrow at her. It had become a new habit of his.

"Says who? You could easily avoid my prank by simply jumping over it. I was being nice today. _Your_ pranks, however, aren't only incredibly mean, but also incredibly dangerous. I almost broke my neck here!" Terra countered.

He had raised his voice an itty bit, but Aqua could tell that he was extremely pissed off at the moment.

"Oh, and you think I didn't? I was litterally being _catapulted_ into the air! You call that being nice? Are you nuts, or something?"

Aqua had made fists out of her hands and her glare had intensified immensly. Terra almost had wanted to take a step back. Keyword: _almost_.

"That's your own problem. If you had taken glasses, just like me and Ven had told you so many times before, then you could at least still have _seen_ the wire," Terra said coolly.

That was probably enough for Aqua. "Why, you-"

Aqua had rushed forward, but in her anger, she had completely forgotten about the floor, that was still slippery as it had been moments ago. She realized it, though, albeit far too late. It made her slide further than she'd wanted and she collided hard into Terra's arms. Terra hadn't counted on that extra weight, so when she bumped into him, he fell onto his back on the floor again, with Aqua still in his arms. The tips of their noses touched in the process.

"Whoops," said Aqua and she laughed nervously at her clumsy self.

"Wow, I didn't know you liked me that much to jump me right away."

"Shut up," said a suddenly blushing Aqua.

She quickly scrambled to her feet and moved her hands around in a rather graceful manner. The ice had suddenly disappeared from the carpet. It immediately felt much warmer inside, but Terra noticed that the back of his shirt was wet from the ice that now was gone. She was so good with magic, it was almost getting scary. In the mean time, Aqua held out her hand. The tackled Terra was grateful that she offered him her help with getting up.

He grasped her hand and pulled himself up. "Thanks. You're really getting good at using magic, you know that?"

Aqua looked really happy for a short moment, but then she frowned again. Terra wondered why.

"Thanks, but I'm still mad at you for your stupid prank. I've got bruises everywhere."

She turned and walked away, without saying another word or looking over her shoulder at Terra.

"Sure and I'm a goat with two heads," he muttered under his breath, grinning.

He didn't know if Aqua had heard that remark or not, but she had started walking faster all of a sudden.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ I can't wait to write the last chapter. I'll try to make it as long as the first chapter. Or longer. And just so you know, I've had a few other ideas for possible pranks, but they didn't seem funny enough, or something those two would do, so that's mainly why this story will be "only" 16 chapters. Oh, and guess what? I think I might be able to update the last chapter before school starts. I still can't promise anything, though. This kinda shocked me. XD**

**The title of the n****ext chapter - which will be the last one, yay! (Okay, ignore that) - will be "The Deathblow." Any expectations? I wouldn't want to let you guys down. :)**

**Push the review button and review, especially if you have any ideas, comments, etc. You know you want to (and you know _I_ want to). ;)**


	16. The Deathblow

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this one-shot, which takes place before KH BBS. At last, the last, long awaited chapter's finally up! Yay! Well, more like part 1 of the chapter. Sorry for the delay. I wasn't really in the mood to write this plus it was the first week of school and we already got lots of homework again to keep us busy for the rest of this year (seriously, those teachers really seem to like torturing poor, innocent kids). I was actually planning on waiting some months with this, or continue with it when it's summer vacation, but I realized it would make me feel guilty towards the people who like this. Especially when some people started to think that this story was on hiatus.**

**So here it is. Thanks for the waiting and I hope you'll like this. Enjoy reading! ;D**

**A special 'thank you' to: Shanny-Boo, Aqua StormXIV, OrganizationsNumberXIII, Ultrawonderboy CrimsonDarkness, OrganizationsNumberXIII, BloodyAphrodite, Revolution Remix IX, Sovereign Beta, Aqua Azul, Berry4145, junebaby92, NightDiamond358, Nasha Rei-Kun, BlindingDarkness1, Mr. Bunbuns, Uchiha Ryuga and halogirl117pr**

* * *

_~ __"Quick, get all the knives off table!"_ Ven whispered to Master Eraqus, as his heartbeat increased. ~

* * *

It was a quiet, peaceful Sunday morning, exactly as it should be. Aqua woke up by the loud and cheerful sound of the singing birds outside, which was also nothing new on a Sunday morning. As always, the first thing she did, was glancing over at her alarm clock that stood on her nightstand. The red numeral said it was only half past eight. Far too early to get up. Since the blue-haired mage didn't want to get up immediately, she turned and closed her eyes again, hoping to fall asleep again. After all, Sundays were the perfect days to sleep longer than normally. Thanks to the hard training scheme Master Eraqus had made, sleeping longer on other days was impossible. The female teen had almost drifted off into another peaceful slumber, when...

"AAARGH!"

This almost inhuman noise ensured that Aqua immediately opened her cerulean eyes again and sat upright in her bed. Her heart pounded in her chest. What was that screaming? Where did that sound come from? The one who had screamed like that appeared to be in severe pain. She decided to investigate it herself. She got up slowly, her feet bare. The ground felt freezing cold beneath her, but she didn't pay any attention to it. Her mind was elsewhere. A bit nervously, scared of what she would encounter, she opened her bedroom door and looked cautiously around the corner, as if she feared that an axe would be thrown to her head immediately. She wasn't scared, she was just extra careful, that was all. After all, this wouldn't be the first time that something strange had happened in this castle.

Immediately, she saw what was going on. A very bad tempered Terra stood in his doorway, his back turned to her. He had a dark brown liquid on his head that matched his hair quite nicely and it slowly dripped down on the carpet. An empty container lay on the floor beside him. The bluenette couldn't help but start laughing, which made Terra turn to her, grumbling things she couldn't hear. The chocolate on his head - Aqua smelled the scent, because she had a very sensitive nose, and her stomach growled at once, because she still hadn't had any breakfast - splashed in all directions in the process, but he didn't seem to notice, or he just chose to ignore it for the time being.

"That... is... low. Even for you," he said in such a low voice that Aqua wondered for a moment if it really was him who had said that.

Aqua raised her eyebrows, surprised. Someone was being a little grumpy today...

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

This time, she wasn't even acting innocent, for she really had no idea what he meant.

"This!" he said angrily as he pointed at his head that was smeared with chocolate. This sudden movement caused more chocolate to spill on the floor. "You just imitated _my_ prank! Have you run out of ideas? Is that why you decided to commit plagiarism? Well, apparently, 'cause otherwise you wouldn't have done this."

Aqua rolled her overly blue eyes. Seeing this as plagiarism was a bit exaggerated. It really wasn't like Terra was the first one in all worlds who had used that prank. She was sure of that. And yet, this was a free country...uh, world, so she could do whatever she wanted, even running around the castle, completely nude.

_Okay, I just scared myself with that. Where the heck did that thought come from? It must be because of the lack of sleep. Either that, or I've been hanging around with Terra too much lately._

"Don't be such a drama queen all the time. I haven't committed any plagiarism, simply because I didn't prank you, this time," she spoke in a calm manner that only agravated Terra even more. Of course, she could've known that. "I wish I did, though," she added as an afterthought.

"Oh, so you want to say that I've done this to myself? Or even better, Ven did this, just for the kicks," he said sarcastically.

Aqua shrugged and replied, "Well, it _is_ possible, isn't it? Or you could've done it yourself in your sleep, or something. I don't think that Ven is capable of such a thing, though, even if you really deserved it, and I can't really imagine Master Eraqus doing that, either. And I was sleeping all this time, so there's only one person left."

She gave him a meaningful look.

"GRAAAAH!" Terra snarled, frustrated, and he clenched his teeth, while throwing his arms up in the air in his anger.

The sound of his voice echoed through the long hallway and against the walls, so it sounded like a very unpleasant chorus of Hags that sang some scary song about eating all the sweet children of this planet. Aqua's hairs even stood straight up.

"Would you stop shouting down the hallway, you're waking everyone up!" she said sharply.

Terra narrowed his cobalt colored eyes into thin slits and just wanted to say something mean and prickly back that would definitely hurt her feelings, but make himself feel better (before he started to feel guilty about hurting Aqua, that is), when the bathroom door opened with a lot of noise.

"What's- _Whoaoh!_"

Master Eraqus couldn't finish his sentence, because the next moment he was launched into the air and landed on his stomach on the hard floor. Terra winced. By the looks of it, that just _had_ to hurt... and _how_. Luckily, he wore his usual clothing and not a towel tied around his waist, otherwise everything would've been quite unpleasant for everyone. Especially when the towel would slip off, because then he would've lost all his dignity.

Their Master got up again in one quick move. It was so smooth that if anyone else had seen him doing that for the first time, his or her mouth would've probably fallen open in astonishment. After all, not all men of his age could move with the same ease as he did. It was a gift, the result of years of hard training. Moreover, it wasn't just a coincidence that he had become a Master. One had to work really hard, day after day after day, to get the well deserved title. Aqua and Terra both knew that by now. Apparently, Masters could still be clumsy enough to trip over their own feet.

The wise man turned to his two oldest students. "Look what you've done! I almost broke my neck because of you two, so you'd better listen. I do not want you to scream down the hall. You're not nine anymore. Ven is still asleep. You do not need to wake him up that way. If I see this kind of behavior from any of you again, the consequences won't be pleasant," he said strictly, and he stepped into the bathroom again, closing the door behind him.

"Too late," said Ven grumpily, just at the same time Terra and Aqua said "Yes, Master," and their sensei had closed the door.

Ven looked sharply at the two teenagers, accusation written in his striking blue eyes. His eyes were still filled with sleep and his blond, messy hair lay flat on his head. Aqua found him looking so cute, and at least three years younger. In one way or another, she had half-expected to see him holding a stuffed teddy bear in his arms, while sucking his thumb. She was therefore only half-disappointed when she saw that she was wrong.

_Wow, I really must have a lack of sleep if I was thinking _that_._

"How great. This was the only day in the week that I could sleep a little longer and then the so called _smart_ grown-ups just had to ruin it for me again," he grumbled. "Oh, and what did you do to your hair? You look like crap. Wait, _is _that cr-"

"No, of course not!" Terra snapped, his frown once again appearing on his forehead.

"I'm sorry we woke you up, Ven," Aqua said quickly, before Terra would have another mental breakdown in front of them.

"Yeah. That wasn't exactly my fault, because someone-," here, he gave Aqua a murderous look, before he continued, "thought it was a funny idea to put chocolate on top of my bedroom door, so it would fall on my head once I opened the damn' door."

Aqua sighed, getting fed up with the false accussations. "I already told you, I didn't do it! How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

She stepped back into her room and shut the door with a loud _'Bang!' _not waiting for the brunet male to answer her question.

Terra frowned and Ven looked at him. "Wow, well done. Looks like you know exactly how to upset a girl and ruin someone's mood at the same time. Now she'll be like this for the rest of the day."

"What? But I didn't do anything!" Terra objected, confused as heck.

"You didn't believe her. That's enough for her to act like that. Add hormones to all that, and you get this result. Don't forget that she's a girl. You have to be more careful around her," Ven said wisely.

Terra gave him a funny look. "Since when did you become such a nerd?"

"Since you two behave like little children with those stupid pranks." Ven answered irritably. After glancing swiftly to his friend's hair, he added, "And I would wash that out of your hair if I were you, before it merges with your hair, 'cause then you'll be having a major problem."

Ven pulled his head back again and closed his bedroom door behind him.

"Before it merges with my hair? What the heck is he talking about? Is that even possible?" Terra wondered out loudly.

In the mean time, Aqua had walked to her closet. She just didn't get it. Why would she lie about something that Terra thought she had done? Which she obviously hadn't. It was probably just another strange trick of him. What the result of that trick was, she didn't know. She didn't really care, either. First she had to wake up. She pulled one of the doors of her closet open, but to her amazement and anger there were only toys stuffed in it, which was very strange, because she didn't even have any toys.

That was when it struck to her that those were exactly the same toys that she had put in Terra's closet as a prank earlier. "And then _he_ says that _I'm_ imitating _him_. This makes me wonder what the hell _he_ is doing, then," she said sarcastically.

On second thought, she didn't actually want to know it.

* * *

After she had finished showering and towel drying her hair, she walked down the hall to go downstairs for breakfast. It was eerily quiet in the hallway, so everyone was probably in the kitchen already. Or maybe Ven went back to bed to get some more sleep. It was also quite strange that he had woken up from Terra's screaming, because normally, the boy slept through everything. She dared to bet that even two matured elephants wearing a pink tutu, while dancing in his room wouldn't wake him up. Perhaps he had been awake already and he found it more fun to blame Terra. On the other hand, it wasn't that strange that he woke up from the screaming, because it had sounded louder than a gunshot. Also, all the walls in the hallway had a nasty habit of echoeing the sound, so it probably sounded extra hard. Maybe she should ask Ven about it, instead making her own conclusions.

Somehow, she managed to put her right foot in a wrong way on the carpet at that moment, because suddenly, she found that she was lying on her back on the floor, facing the white ceiling. That was when she realized she had slipped and was sliding towards the stairs. She tried to stop at the top of the stairs, but all the steps had disappeared all of a sudden. The stairs seemed more like a slide.

_What the hell?_

She slid down, screaming at the top of her lungs, and came slowly to a halt at the end of the stairs. The stairs changed quietly back to how they were before. Aqua blinked her eyes, rather dazed. She wondered what exactly had just happened. She had no clue.

Master Eraqus walked hurriedly to her, from the kitchen, followed by a baffled Terra. "Aqua, are you alright?" the man asked, concerned.

She nodded slowly, as if she was afraid that her head would roll off her neck if she moved more than that. "I... think so."

"What happened?" Terra asked, frowning.

"I think I slipped down the stairs... and suddenly it turned into a slide! I slid all the way down. Quite strange, huh?"

Master Eraqus and Terra exchanged a quick glance and then looked at her as if she had grown a second head. Terra's frown was replaced by an expression of sheer disbelief. Master Eraqus's face was less easy to read, but it was still clearly visible that he was wondering if she was telling the truth.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she asked slowly, fearing for the worst.

"Aqua, do you realize what you just said, right? Are you sure you didn't accidentally bump your head somewhere when you fell off those stairs?" Terra asked, derisively.

Aqua clenched her shaking hands into fists. "Why don't you ever believe me? Why would I lie about such a thing?" she asked angrily.

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe it's a girl thing I wouldn't understand, anyway."

The female teen glared daggers at him, before she looked at her teacher for some support, it didn't matter in what form, but even that seemed to be in vain. She just knew it the second he opened his mouth. It was written in his eyes.

"Aqua, I have to say that in all the years that I've lived here in this castle, a staircase has never changed into a slide. Perhaps you need some more rest and a little less hard to train, even if the Master Qualification Exam will be in a few weeks," said their Master thoughtfully. "Your health is more important than any test in the world."

She simply couldn't believe this. The house, no, the staircase, seemed to have turned against her and no one believed her. What the heck was going on here?

Her train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by another voice. "Apparently, you people just can't help but scream through the castle when someone else is still trying to get some sleep," muttered a pretty annoyed Ven, standing on the top of the stairs.

Everyone now turned his attention to him. This time, his usual spiky hair was back again and he seemed to be fourteen again.

"Hey Ven, walk down the stairs," said Terra suddenly.

Aqua knew immediately that he wanted to check if her story was true or not. Well, they would all see it for themselves now. She did quite feel sorry for poor Ven, though, hoping that he wouldn't get hurt too much from falling off the stairs.

"I was just planning on doing that, so don't command me," Ven exclaimed irritably. "What are you, my dad?"

"Sorry. I had forgotten that you're not such a morning person."

Ven rolled his striking blue eyes and ran down the stairs. One could read the great surprise and annoyance from Aqua's face, and Terra's joy, when nothing strange happened (well, the cocky little smirk said it all). The stairs were still the same and they didn't change into a giant slide. Ven was down within a few seconds, still in one piece. Aqua's mouth fell open. Of course the stairs only had to change into a slide when _she_ was walking on them.

"There, you see? There's absolutely nothing wrong with the stairs. But you on the other hand..."

Terra glanced meaningfully at Aqua, who looked devastated.

"I won't ask again what's going on between you two, 'cause I honestly don't care at this time of the day. I'm gonna have some breakfast, 'cause I'm starving," Ven said.

He walked into the kitchen and Master Eraqus followed suit. Terra and Aqua were left alone in the hallway. The first reached out to help Aqua with standing on her feet again, but she didn't take his help and scrambled to her feet by herself. She didn't need help from a traitor.

Terra snorted, rolling his eyes. "Suit yourself."

He also went into the kitchen. Aqua watched his retreating back. She could feel that this would be another of those long, boring and useless days. Aqua decided to listen to her empty and growling stomach and went to the kitchen too, taking seat next to Terra, on the opposite of Master Eraqus. She went for ignoring everyone around the table in order to remain calm. Losing your temper this early in the morning never proved to be such a good thing, anyway. Fortunately for her, nothing unusual happened during breakfast. At one point, Aqua even dared to look at other things instead of just quietly staring into her bowl of cereal. She was greatly rewarded for that, for suddenly, Ven spit a jet of orange juice right in Terra's face. She felt how her lips curled up into a small smile and tried to hide it before Terra would notice. Fortunately for Terra it wasn't hot tea, because that would've been rather unpleasant for him. And it would have left its mark, too.

Ven walked over to the sink and started to drink a glass of water, while Terra took a white napkin from the table and slowly wiped his face clean. His eyes were fixated all that time on the youngest inhabitant of the castle. Aqua didn't know if it was the lighting in the kitchen, but Terra's eyes suddenly seemed to have changed from color. The beautiful, cobalt blue seemed to have disappeared and a dark, orange-ish color had taken its place. It scared her to no end, because she had never seen this yellowish color before and it didn't fit him at all. He looked truly evil.

"Ven, may I ask what that was for?" he asked as calm and quietly as he could muster, when his face was clean again.

Aqua knew that his hands were shaking under the table, though.

"I'd like to ask you the same. Why did you put hot chili pepper in my drink? What if I had been alergic to pepper and you didn't know?" Ven asked angrily. "You could've killed me!"

Terra raised a thin and dark eyebrow, giving the younger boy a flat look. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me!"

"No, I mean, what makes you so sure that I-" he began again, but Ven interrupted him in mid sentence.

"Because, Terra, you're the only one here who's familiar with and known for putting things in a person's food and drinking. Dye, pepper, you name it. _That's_ why."

"I already told you, I didn't do it!"

This time Terra had raised his voice slightly, a sign that he began to get annoyed with Ven's accusation.

"Now you finally know how I feel," Aqua muttered.

Terra looked sharply at her, but said nothing. But then, "Aqua, did you-"

"If you didn't do it, can you prove that you're innocent?" Ven asked, interrupting Terra once again.

The young teenager probably already knew what the answer to that question was going to be and his suspicions had been right; Terra stayed quiet.

"..."

Apparently, Terra didn't know what to say.

"Yup, just like I thought," muttered Ven triumphantly.

He grinned at his little victory.

Terra, who appeared to lose his temper at this point, got up from his chair and seemed to want to attack Ven. "Why you little-"

"_Enough!_" thundered the voice of their sensei.

Immediately it was dead quiet in the kitchen, the tension lingering in the air, almost as thick and visible as the smoke of a cigarette. Their Master rarely raised his voice like that, so now he had to be very angry at them. Terra sat down again, albeit quite slowly. Aqua saw that he had clenched his hands into fists and that for some reason, he was trembling. Could it be because the Master's loud voice had almost given him a heart-attack, or...

"What is all this sudden nonsense? You act like you're enemies. I don't want to see more of this kind of childish behavior. As you all know, the Master Qualification Exam will start in a few weeks, and you still seem to think that you're little children. Terra-" Terra's head jerked up. He looked at his master and averted his gaze again, not being able to look into those dark pools. "I do not want to notice again that you raise your voice if there is no reason for it, nor do I want to hear that you put something in someone else's drink again. It seems that you're not improving from it yourself, either, because your teeth are colored red."

Terra was clearly shocked by this revelation, seeing as his eyes widened in surprise. It seemed to him that it wasn't a good idea to tell Master Eraqus that he really hadn't put anything in Ven's drink. Master Eraqus would become even angrier and even now he looked like he wanted to bite his head off.

"Yes, Master."

"Good. Then let's continue eating."

They continued with breakfast in silence. Terra took the time to check his teeth into his spoon, because he had no mirror at hand. Duh, why would he need a mirror, he always looked good. His teacher was right, though. His teeth were bright red, as if they were bleeding. But if they had bled, Master Eraqus would've seen that and told him. Besides, he would've tasted the blood, but now, he still didn't taste anything.

He began to grind his teeth. It was very clear what was going on here. Someone tried to denigrate him in front of the rest of the castle and he had a feeling, no, he even _knew for sure_ who it was. After all, who else could it be if he wasn't the one who had done this? So Aqua had sunk to a lower level? Well, this time he wouldn't play along. He would show everyone how things really were and he would start with it right after breakfast, but he would make sure that he didn't hurt Aqua's feelings in the process, for he didn't want for her to be sad because of something he did. Wait... why in the world was he still trying not to hurt her feelings when she was being this mean to him? Love really sucked.

_Wait, did I really just... Oh no. Have I really fallen in love with Aqua? This could make things a lot harder for me._

"Oh Ven, could you pass me the butter, please?" Aqua asked.

Terra's attention snapped back to what was happening in the kitchen.

"Yup." Ven reached for the butter and then handed it to Aqua, who took it thankfully out of his hands. "Here you are."

"Thanks, Ven!" Aqua said, smiling sweetly at the youngest Keybearer.

"No problemo, Aquo," Ven assured her, and he gave her a quick wink.

Aqua started to laugh. Terra almost wanted to roll his eyes at that. _Aquo?_ Seriously? Oh puh-lease! If he didn't know any better, he would think that Ven was flirting with Aqua. Tch, like he could be of any match for her. Aqua obviously wasn't interested in such immature guys with such a high-pitched voice. She probably liked the older guys who actually used their brains instead of their so-called 'cuteness.' Someone like him for example. Not that he cared about that, or anything... Oh, who was he kidding?

Suddenly, Aqua got up from her seat. Her chair clapped backwards and fell to the ground, clattering. She began to scratch her arms and legs at top speed, like a madwoman, as if she would be rewarded if she did it this fast. Terra was quick enough to figure out what exactly was wrong with her, since he had experienced it himself; itching powder. It had to be that. Terra glanced around. Since there was only a can of orange juice on the table, he decided to use that to help her. He picked it up and flung the contents of the can at Aqua.

_SPLASH!_

Aqua uttered a high-pitched cry when the liquid made contact with her skin, as she stepped back awkwardly. Her eyes went wide open and she looked at Terra in a way that made both Terra and Ven shiver. Her blue hair was sticking on her face. She literally began to shake with rage.

"Aqua? Are you okay?" Terra asked, seeming completely oblivious to the murderous look in Aqua's cerulean eyes.

That was the last straw for her. He wouldn't escape from this that easily. She picked up her half-full glass of orange juice and flung it swiftly in Terra's face, who also uttered a cry of surprise, albeit not as high-pitched as Aqua had done.

Ven gasped, softly but still audibly, realizing with a start that from this point a new war would start between his two best friends. _"Quick, get all the knives off table!"_ Ven whispered to Master Eraqus, as his heartbeat increased.

This was not good...

* * *

**A/N: Dun dun dun! And that was a pretty sad attempt to a cliffie. I decided to split up the last chapter in two parts to satisfy the few people who wanted to read some more. I have to say that I'm not entirely satisfied with how this chapter went, but I'm just too lazy to change it again. ;P Not that I have much time to change it. Let me know what you think of it so far. I'll fix the mistakes later. Probably. Part 2 is on its way, so all I can ask, is for some patience.**


	17. The Punishment

**A/N: Don't own this, except for the story idea. Wow, 13 reviews for the last chapter. I'm in such a good mood now. :) So, am I a good girl, or what? I'm supposed to do my homework right now, but I decided to surprise you guys (and if the teachers eat me tomorrow, then it'll be your fault. Kidding). So yay, part two of the last chapter is up! At last. This one wouldn't have been updated earlier if I hadn't gotten ill and wouldn't be in a mood to delay homework. Guh, I never get ill... only maybe once a year... Which was now, I guess... I hope.**

**Sorry if it confuzzled you a bit, but this isn't the last part of the last chapter of this story yet. I made it a bit longer, 'cause I couldn't say goodbye to this story yet. :'( I really hope you like this, though. :) What will we learn from this chapter? That I like adding sound weird effects here and there. You'll see what I mean as you read this. Oh, and before I forget: I changed something near the end of the previous chapter, before Terra flungs orange juice at Aqua's face: Ven passes the butter to Aqua and says, "No problemo, Aquo," as she thanks him, which makes Aqua laugh. Terra gets kind of jealous, thinking that Ven's flirting with Aqua (he really is strange, but that's why we all love him so much, no?). Just thought I should let you guys know, in case you wanted to read it. Enjoy reading!**

**A special thanks to: UltraWonderBoy, halogirl117pr, BloodyAphrodite, OrganizationsNumberXIII, Aqua StormXIV, Shanny-Boo, SquareBenix, Berry4145, kalulu 1080, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Axrat, RISING FLURRY, Hakumei-chan, QUEEN EEVEE, (), Aqua Azul and Taora**

* * *

_~ "Uh, thanks... Aqua? Does that mean your hair always glows in the dark?" ~_

* * *

"What was _that_ for? All I did was save you from your misery and then I get this?"

The intensity of Aqua's glare increased even more, a sign for Terra to shut up _right now _if he wanted to stay alive. She didn't bother to answer that question, as she kept glaring daggers at the now soaked brunet male.

Terra sighed, but didn't give up yet. "Well, never mind already. Here, let me help you," he said, as he grabbed a tissue and started cleaning Aqua's shirt.

The bluenette jerked back from the touch. "Don't touch me!" she yelled and she ran out of the kitchen, heading straight for her bedroom, before she would come up with a way to chop off Terra's head with her Keyblade.

Yes, she had heard what Ven had whispered, but she hadn't told him that she didn't need those stupid knives to harm Terra. Not that she would ever do that, of course. She cared too much for him, so much that she even had started to fall in love with him, despite the fact that he had flung orange juice at her, or all the immature pranks he had pulled on her so far. If she ignored all that, than she couldn't help but admit that he was such a sweet (and not to mention drop-dead gorgeous!) guy. Always there to help her or cheer her up, too. Aqua didn't remember when exactly it had happened, but that didn't matter. She had started developing feelings for him, without realizing it herself and now, it was too late to ignore them. At first, she had seen Terra as her best friend and the older brother she had never had, but now...

In her anger, she had completely forgotten about her new fear of the stairway that could change into a slide. The sight of her bedroom didn't make her any happier, either. She almost got a heart-attack when she saw the brown walls of her once light blue bedroom.

It made her gasp, as horror filled her heart. "What..." the startled teen started, but she wasn't able to finish her sentence.

She ran her slender index finger and middle finger over one of the walls, noting that the paint had already dried. It had been Terra. Who else? She didn't know how yet, but he would_ definitely _pay for this, even if that was the last thing she would do. And it was at times like these where she started to wonder why exactly she had fallen in love with someone who seemed to like upsetting her so much. They said that one could get addicted to a certain kind of sadness. Was that what attracted her so much to him? It was hard to believe, but there had to be some truth in it. The proof was right in front of her, after all.

* * *

The rest of the day, a few other incidents happened that made Master Eraqus's blood boil. The shoes he had lost, were found by Ven under Terra's bed. He hadn't even found that the worst of all. He was brought in a much worse mood when he had bumped into an invisible, but hard plastic that had been strained over the entrance of the kitchen. They could tell that it had hurt quite a lot from the small cry of pain they had heard. Since he wasn't quite sure which of the two had done that, both Terra and Aqua were given a punishment to keep them busy for the rest of the day. They had to clean up one of the many stockrooms of the huge castle. That would make the day last even longer for the two pupils.

Aqua entered the stockroom first and Terra came in after her. Once the door was closed, it was pitch dark in the room.

Aqua rolled her eyes. "You could've turned the lights on first, you know," she said.

Since Terra seemed to be too lazy to do it, Aqua let her hand slip over the surprisingly cold wall, searching like a blind person for the light switch that had to be here somewhere. Well, frankly, she really felt blind in the dark, because she couldn't see a thing. She found it quite a scary idea that she couldn't see if there was anything dangerous out there. Terra apparently felt just as blind as she did, because suddenly she felt his hand stroking gently and lightly over hers. It was warm to the touch. Quickly, she pulled her hand away and she felt a slight blush creep across her cheeks, as her heartbeat increased drastically.

_I really need to get a hold of these feelings, otherwise Terra will know my secret._

Well, that was much easier said than done, that much was obvious.

_Click!_

"Whoah!" Terra uttered, shocked, just when the lights were turned on.

It wasn't very bright, but bright enough to make the scary shadows shrink and go away. Aqua breathed a small sigh of relief. She wondered when and why she had withheld her breath in the first place. She looked at Terra, who was holding his right hand with his left hand. He had a pretty pained expression on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Aqua asked, surprised.

"I got an electric shock when I turned the lights on."

Aqua grinned, being amused at that fact. "Haha. Pussy," she said teasingly.

That word simply did it.

Terra frowned at her. "Don't give me that look. It really hurt!"

It was the first time Terra had admitted that something had really hurt him. Even when they trained together and she managed to hit him with her magic or even _Rainfall_, her Keyblade, he didn't complain about pain.

"I know," she said calmly. "I remember it all too well thanks to your stupid prank with that ring."

Terra grunted something unintelligible, but Aqua paid no longer any attention to him. She looked around. The stock was of average size, not very big, nor too small. It was crammed with tables, chairs, books, cardboard boxes, other inanimate objects and large fragments of a broken mirror. Ooh, and that was seven years of bad luck for the one who had broken it. She wondered who had done that and when it had happened. Everything was thrown into one messy heap and the things that laid on top could fall off at any moment, creating an avalanche of old stuff. This room indeed needed to be cleaned up drastically.

"I think it's more convenient if one of us gets a mop and a bucket of soapy water. You take the bucket, I'll do the mop, okay?" Aqua asked.

Terra shrugged, as if he didn't really care. "All right. The sooner this is over, the sooner we can resume enjoying our Sunday."

A long-suffering sigh unintentionally escaped her lips. He made it almost sound like it was oh so bad to be in the same room with her, but honestly, it couldn't be that bad, right? Even she didn't mind being locked up with the guy who had flung a whole can of orange juice at her at breakfast. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that she liked him more than she probably should, but still.

"Okay," she said dully.

She walked to the door and tried to open it, but the door didn't seem to want to cooperate this time. Why was everything in this castle against her today? Even in the morning, the shower had run out of hot water. If it hadn't been for her magic, she would've had no other choice but to wash her hair with cold water.

"Can you hurry up a bit? Unlike you, I don't have all day," Terra's voice sounded from behind her.

"Well, unlike you, I'm not trying to annoy people by acting like a complete idiot. The door won't open," Aqua snapped.

She was more than sick of his non-cooperative behavior.

Now it was Terra's turn to sigh. "Step aside. I'll do it."

_Oh yay, Terra, the hero of the castle, comes to the rescue_, she thought sarcastically.

Still, Aqua did what he asked of her and stepped aside so he could get to the door. Terra pulled the door handle, but it didn't open, no matter how hard he tried.

She almost wanted to say to him "I told you so!" but was able to stop herself right in time. Stating out the obvious obviously wouldn't work in this case. It would only get Terra angrier.

Still, she couldn't resist saying something that just entered her mind. "And you were the strongest of us?" Aqua asked teasingly, allowing a small smirk to dance on her lips.

"It's locked," he noted, completely ignoring her remark.

"Well, fortunately we both have a Keyblade, so we can open the door in no time, right?"

She stepped to the door and _Rainfall_, her Keyblade, materialized in her hand as she did so. She waved it to the door and she clearly heard a soft click. She smiled at her triumph and pulled at the door. It still didn't open, though, so she started pulling harder and harder.

However, it was all of no use. "What the- What is this?"

Seriously, what was wrong with the door? She gave up and started inspecting it thoroughly, touching the sides of it.

Her hand touched something sticky. "Ew, what is this sticky stuff? It smells like..."

She gasped audibly. _Oh no_, she thought, as realization hit her. _No no no!_

She knew that smell all too well. She had used this sticky stuff once against her crush.

Terra came forward and looked at it over her shoulder. "Glue," he said, finishing her sentence.

Aqua didn't confirm it, because she knew that it wasn't necessary. Terra was right and they both knew that someone outside had glued the door shut, probably on purpose. The question was, who, and why? Her shoulders slumped. There was no way they would get out of here soon. Besides, Master Eraqus and Ven were both three floors lower. There was no way that they could hear their screaming if they tried to call out for help.

"Then we'll have to do it without that mop and bucket of water," Terra said casually.

Aqua just nodded. Silently, they began their cleanup task. They both agreed that they would start worrying about how they came out of here when they had finished cleaning up, which was likely to take a long while.

* * *

They had spent at least one hour, moving tables and heavy boxes, although it seemed to be much longer, because in a quiet room without any clock to indicate the time, time was an illusion. Now they took a little break, because they had both become pretty tired. It had suddenly become much hotter in the small room, too.

"I'm thirsty," Terra complained. "Where's water when you need it?"

Aqua almost had to laugh at the double meaning of that sentence. _'I'm right here, Terra,' _she thought.

"Wait, Ven gave me two bottles of water, along with some other things. I brought it all with me, but I forgot where I put- Oh, there it is!" Aqua exclaimed, pointing at a white plastic bag that stood on a wooden chair.

"Ah, nice! Catch."

Terra took a bottle of water out of the bag and tossed it at Aqua, who caught it with her right hand. He sat down on the chair, putting the bag next to him and then opening the bottle to take a sip.

Aqua grabbed a blue whisk that lay on another chair, before she sat down on that same chair, next to Terra. "I'm glad that at least we still have electricity, otherwise we would never have found that bag."

_Click!_

Damn it all... The lights went out all of a sudden, so that only meant that the power was out. The darkness was back again, surrounding the teenagers. It seemed to be thicker than ever. It almost felt like the darkness was trying to enter their heart and freeze their brains, wrapping around them like a freezing cold blanket, its intentions as poisonous as a snake. If there was one thing Aqua hated with a passion, it was snakes. The young woman gasped softly at the sudden and unexpected darkness and took Terra's hand (how she had found it in the darkness, was a mystery, though).

"Aqua, would you please _shut up_?" Terra asked, becoming extremely annoyed with how things went. _""Fortunately, we have a Keyblade, oh, I'm glad that at least we still have electricity." _What's the next thing you're gonna say? Thank heavens we still have _oxygen_? No wait, I shouldn't give you any idea-"

_WHOOSH!_

_FLATS!_

"Damn! Aqua!"

As you could all guess, Aqua did the only thing she could think of at that moment, - and you had to admit that it was a good comeback - and strangely enough, that was hitting the back of Terra's head with the whisk she was still holding in her hands.

"Oh toughen up, little boy. And excuse _me_ for trying to be a bit optimistic! At least I try to cheer you up a bit. The only thing you can do is complain and do mischief! Well, I'm afraid that that won't bring us anywhere now, don't you think?" When Terra said nothing, - he was far too busy with rubbing the back of his head and thinking, _you call that cheering me up a bit?_ - she continued, but a bit softer, "Today I've seen enough misery for the rest of my life. Well, fortunately nobody dyed my hair. I would really freak out if I suddenly had green hair, or pink, even though I like the color itself, and... it really suited you."

Terra looked at her, or at least, to the place where he thought her head was.

He could still see her silhouette in the dark, but there was one change about her that made his eyes widen in shock. "Uh, thanks... Aqua? Does that mean your hair always glows in the dark?"

What kind of question was that? And why did he sound so awkward?

She raised a thin eyebrow, but she knew that Terra wouldn't be able to see it in the dark. "No... Have _you_ lost your mind?" she asked dryly. Terra sighed, and she heard some stumbling, coming from beside her. "Terra, what are you doing?"

She really started to get nervous of the other teen's actions, because she couldn't see anything he was doing (what if he had grabbed an ax to chop _her_ head off?), and she made no effort to hide it. Knowing him, he even did it deliberately, in order to irritate her some more, because apparently, it was oh so fun to annoy the heck out of good ol' Aqua.

"I'm looking for that piece of broken mirror," he replied.

"Be careful. You might cut your hands!"

"Yes, mom," Terra muttered, smirking.

Suddenly, she saw a faint, greenish light appear in front of her, that (not so) perchance had the exact same shape of her hair style. She knew that Terra was holding the mirror in front of her face so she could see it for herself. Her eyes widened as she touched her hair and saw the 'shadows' that her fingers made on her hair. She had touched her hair with the hand that had been holding unintentionally onto Terra's hand. She hadn't really realized that, but Terra had. In fact, he had smiled during that moment.

"Someone's... going to... die," she said slowly.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it. :) ****Yay, I learned a new word in English: whisk. XD Not that any of you would care, but that was why I used it three times, so I would memorize the awesome word. xD Seriously, at school they never teach us things that can be useful. Nooo, we have to know what 'banter' means, or 'oddball,' because apparently we need and use those words every day. -_-' Teachers, I guess I'll never understand them... But yeah, somehow I really like the idea of Aqua beating Terra's head with a whisk. I just don't know why. Guess I'm pretty strange. I don't know when part 3 will be up, so I'm sorry for that. I might change some things in this chapter too, but not now, 'cause my homework is waiting to be made.**

**Review, please, 'cause who knows, I might update faster if you do... (hint, hint, hint)**


	18. Alone in the Dark

**A/N: Don't own them (yet). Woot! Over the 5500 views already? It's unbelievable! Can you imagine that this started as a simple one-shot? After a few days (or maybe weeks) I got the idea to make a story of this where the two teenagers take revenge and start developing feelings for each other in the process. I didn't know back then that this would become my most popular story on this site. Well, hope you'll like this last chappie, and I hope you won't notice that I'm not really satisfied with this one, either. All the mysteries will be solved now (or will they...?) Enjoy reading! ;)**

**Thanks: Aqua StormXIV, halogirl117pr, UltraWonderBoy, OathkeeperRoxasXNamine09, OrganizationsNumberXIII, Ashcroitt, Aqua Azul, CrimsonDarkness 0013 (the 100th reviewer! I've never got 100 reviews for a story before), XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, Berry4145, Shanny-Boo, NightDiamond358, Mooncry and Phyxrgon**

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The sudden anger could be heard clearly in her melodious voice (well, to Terra, it really sounded more melodious than anything in the world). She sounded dangerous and reckless, too. That little fact gave Terra goosebumps and for once in his life, he was more than glad that he hadn't been the one who had made her this mad this time (but then... who did that?). It made him feel safe.

"I love it when you do that," Terra muttered, smirking slightly.

He just couldn't help but find it funny, because he expected Aqua to be the last person to kill someone. Living with her in the same "house" had taught him one thing. She was more like the "Can't-we-all-talk-about-this-while-we-drink-a-nice-cup-of-hot-tea?" type of person. Well, except when something would happen to her friends. That was one of the things he really liked about her. He had never met such a pure-hearted person like her.

"Excuse me?"

Aqua hadn't quite heard the part that came after the word "when," but she had a feeling that he had said something that was quite shocking. After all, it was Terra she was talking about. Nobody knew how to shock people better than him.

"Oh uhm, nothing. It's not important," Terra quickly replied, gaining some more color on his cheeks.

_Sheez, then why did you start about it in the first place_, Aqua wanted to say, but she changed her mind.

She chose to ignore it, since it was Terra who had said it. He probably _wanted_ her to ask him again what he had said. Instead, she made herself a bit useful by casting a small fire in the palm of her hand, to illuminate her surroundings. The flames seemed to eat most of the darkness away. Aqua noticed that Terra's eyes had a strange glint in them and it terrified her, making her feel like something was wrong. She couldn't place what kind of emotion accompanied that glint. It wasn't happiness, nor anger or sorrow. She blinked several times to clear her head and make the uncomfortable feeling disappear.

When she looked at him again, she saw that the strange glint in his eyes had disappeared. _Then it probably just was the lighting. Or lack thereof_, she thought, relieved. _Thank heavens. For one second I really thought that..._

"This is much better, right?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah. At least we can see each other now," Terra replied, nodding briefly.

"Uh-huh... Which makes me wonder, where did you get this greenish, glow-in-the-dark-hairdye from, anyway?"

She eyed his body language suspiciously, like an experienced person who was trained for this for years on end. Her eyes were specifically searching for signs that would indicate if he was lying to her or not. The only reason that she would know all this, was because the two had practically grown up together.

"It wasn't me who did this to you, if that's what you're thinking. I know you probably won't believe me, anyway, - and I can't say that I'm surprised if you don't - but... I really like your hair the way it is now and it would be very wrong of me to dye it, 'cause blue makes you look kind of...well..." Terra paused to find the right word. "Cute."

"W-what?"

Aqua blushed furiously at that the instant she heard it, because nobody had ever called her cute before, and the fact that Terra was the first one who had done that, made her head spin furiously and her heart flutter with pure happiness. It made her glow from the inside and she tried not to smile like an idiot.

"Uh, thanks!" she uttered, trying not to sound too surprised, but failing miserably.

They were both quiet for a moment, listening to the barely audible crackling sounds that the small fire made. Aqua had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but she didn't really dare. She felt so uncomfortable around him. Normally, Ven would constantly be around them, filling in the silence when he felt like he had to, - which was always - but now that he wasn't there, she didn't really know what to do, nor what to say. It made her beyond nervous and she wondered if Terra would feel the same, too, although he seemed to be very calm and comfortable, even if it was so dark. Aqua hated (the) darkness more than anything.

"Hey Aqua?"

She sighed lightly, being more than happy that he took the initiative to break the rather awkward silence. "Hmm?"

Terra wanted to tell her what he felt for her, how much he loved to see her sweet smile every day, that he really liked sparring with her, how much she had started to mean for him, how happy she made him by simply being there. He wanted to tell her all of this and more, because this would be the right time to do so, he could feel it.

The instant he looked at her, though, he felt too weak for it and changed his mind, feeling like a coward. Instead, he went for, "Could you please put that whisk down? It's kind of... intimidating... considering the fact that you already showed me you won't hesitate to use it against me whenever you would want to."

That was one of the last things Aqua had expected to hear. She gave him a rather funny look and then started to laugh. Little did she know that Terra couldn't look away from her.

"Sure, if it really scares you _that_ much," she said, as she put it under her seat, but not before waving it in front of Terra's face for the last time to tease him slightly.

Terra followed its movements with his eyes, as if he was following a tennis match, making her smile widen.

"Is that better?" she asked.

"Much better."

"Good."

"Mmhmm."

And there was the silence again, greeting them quietly. This time it was a longer one, because neither of them knew what to say anymore.

"Aqua?" Terra spoke again.

Why was it always Terra who broke the deafening silence, she wondered. It almost looked like he knew that she was nervous and he wanted to make her feel more comforable. Aqua thought that that was very sweet of him, and she was very grateful for that, but there was something else that caught her attention this time. She noticed almost immidiately that his voice sounded slightly different. It wasn't as low as normally. She knew that that would only happen when he noticed something very peculiar.

"Yes, Terra?"

He seemed to hesitate slightly, but decided to continue anyway, "I'm not really... comfortable with this. Something just seems... off, strange, not quite... right."

His voice faltered and a frown appeared on his forehead, as if he was in deep thought about what that 'something' could be.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at Aqua, his heart skipping a beat. _She looks so cute when she's giving me that clueless, quizical look. Not that I get to see that that much, since Aqua's pretty smart._

"Well, don't you think this is all a bit too coincidental to just be a coincidence?" Aqua still looked at him, now completely puzzled, so he continued to explain. "I mean, all of a sudden, Ven decides to give you a big bag of food and drinks, before we have to clean this room as a punishment for something we both said that we haven't done. And the Master believed neither of us. Then, someone glues the door shut from the outside without us noticing and it also appears that someone has dyed your hair. It just isn't right, now is it?"

Aqua finally began to understand what he meant. Terra was right. This was beyond coincidence. Why didn't she notice this herself before?

"Now that you're mentioning it, it really is strange. What's even stranger, is that all those pranks of this morning were almost the same as the ones we've used against each other, but with a little variety here and there," she supplemented.

"Exactly! I bet it was all planned. Ven must be behind all this."

Even though he put on a neutral expression on his face, his voice betrayed that he was pretty pissed.

"Well, I honestly don't think so, because Ven said that Master Eraqus told him to give that bag to me for when we wanted to take a short break. That way, we wouldn't have to go all way back to the kitchen and lose unnecessary time. So Master Eraqus should be the one who's behind these pranks and other stuff."

_No, Aqua. That's what he wants you to believe. Why are you always so naive when it comes to Ven? He isn't half as innocent as you're thinking._

The instant Aqua had said those words, she realized how stupid - not to mention how unbelievable - it all sounded. Master Eraqus, _pranking_ them? It would be more possible that the sun would never shine in this world anymore, than that their Master would do such a childish thing.

"Then let me get this right. What you want to say, is that Master Eraqus pranked himself this morning when he fell over the wire in the bathroom door?" Terra asked, cocking an eyebrow at her strange logic.

Oh, right. She had totally forgotten about that little fact.

"Wait, how do you know it was a wire he fell over? You didn't even check it," Aqua noted.

"Because I don't think Eraqus is clumsy enough to trip over his own feet. This is the great Master Eraqus we're talking about, remember?"

He certainly had a point there.

"Well, then Ven may not be the mastermind behind this plan, either, because someone had poured pepper in his drink," Aqua argued.

"Yeah, that's what Ven says. You forgot to check the other side of the story."

Aqua felt like it was her job to protect the youngest Keybearer. Terra always seemed to find some stupid excuse to blame him for something that wasn't his fault at all. She didn't know why he did that, but it was annoying the heck out of her and she knew that it upset Ven, too.

"Yes, because in your eyes, everyone's a little liar and you're the only one in this world who's right," she said, at once annoyed. "Honestly, why do you pick on him so much? Is it because you can't stand it that he's faster than you, or something?"

A long-suffering sigh escaped Terra's mouth before he could stop it. It made him sound much older.

"Aqua, please. We've talked about this before, so don't start about that one again."

"Why not? Because it's tru-"

"With all due respect," Terra raised his voice, so she would let him finish his sentence, "but if I didn't put anything in his drink and neither did you, at least, that's what I assume," at this point, Aqua looked at him angrily and opened her mouth to say something about it, but Terra continued quickly, before she had the chance to do so, "then there are only two options left. One, either Master Eraqus was the perpetrator, or two, Ven lied this time, so nobody would suspect him. And don't tell me that you believe that someone came to the castle, only to put some chilli pepper in Ven's drink and then escape quickly out of the window. If you ask me, the perpetrator wanted to show us something this way."

Oh, how she hated it when he was right.

"Yes, but what?" Aqua wondered.

"We're stupid," he replied, in a matter-of-factly tone, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She raised a thin eyebrow at his answer. "I'm sorry?"

He started to smirk at her shocked tone. "I didn't mean it that way. I kind of used Ven's words."

Well, that surely was a first.

"Oh. And at this time I almost wanted to ask you to speak for yourself," she said jokingly.

"Oh haha," Terra spoke sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Of course he knew that she was just joking, so he decided to play along to please her. _Man, the things you do for the people you care for so deeply and most of the time they don't even realize how much you're suffering from them,_ he thought. _Not that I'm suffering now from being in the same room with her. It's kind of... nice._

"Well, then what way _did_ you mean by it?"

This was so typical for Aqua, always coming to the point within seconds.

"Hmm..." Terra said, as he thought about it. "Well, you could see it in many ways. He's probably trying to show us how stupid and dangerous it is to prank each other, and if we continue like this, not sticking by the rules and all, chaos will ensue. It's either that, or something else."

While listening, Aqua had grabbed the plastic bag and was looking for what their young friend had put in it. It was mainly some bags of crisps, another bottle of water, candy, and hey, something she couldn't tell now, because it was too dark for her to see. Gentlly and curiously, she took the box from the bag and inspected it closely in the light of the flame. It was a box with the game Scrabble in it. She smiled. This was her favorite game (she loved everything that had to do with words, whether it was a book, or just a game where you had to think of words) and she had good memories of this game. She had caught Terra cheating several times, claiming that "Awesomer" actually _was_ a word. Of course, that had been when he was much younger. Now he said that he couldn't remember it anymore. Shyeah, right.

"What's that?" Terra asked, and she returned to reality when she heard his voice.

The blue-haired mage looked at the box that she was holding in her hands again. "I think that Ven didn't want us to get bored in here, so he put this game in the bag, too. Do you want to try this, or are you too scared that I'll kick your butt at it?" she asked, knowing that Terra couldn't resist a challenge, no matter how bad he was at Scrabble.

"Tch. You wish! Bring it on," Terra replied, acting all tough again.

Aqua knew it was just bluff. She was the best scrabbler in the castle and everyone knew that already. Even Master Eraqus didn't always dare to play that game with her, claiming that she was the "mother of all good scrabblers in hell," but Terra was apparently brave - or perhaps foolish? - enough to try. They would find that out soon enough.

* * *

They were playing Scrabble for a long time now. How long exactly, neither of them knew. It was very quiet in the small room. The only times that the silence had been broken, was when Terra had noted that she had made a smart move once again, or when Aqua tried unsuccessfully to make him talk.

The fact that he merely answered her questions briefly, made her feel very insecure. _Maybe he doesn't think I'm that nice anymore. He probably has even started to hate me,_ she thought miserably, as she formed another seven-lettering word on the scrabble board.

When she really couldn't take it anymore, she asked him, "Terra, why aren't you saying anything?"

He quirked an eyebrow at her peculiar question. "Do I have to?"

He didn't mean it in a mean way, although it really sounded like that. This made him bite his lower lip, wondering if he should appologize for it or not.

This made Aqua even more nervous, so she didn't quite know what to say. "Uh, no, but... I was just wondering. Never mind already."

"Okay."

Aqua averted her gaze again and looked at the board. She had the highest points so far, but she didn't enjoy the game anymore. She decided to go on with it for a short while and if Terra still didn't bother to talk to her after five new words had formed, she would stop.

- To be continued... -

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**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Hope you liked this. I'm really mean, huh? I keep promising you guys that every part I post, will be the last chapter, but then something else happens, so you'll have to wait for it. I'm sorry for that, it kinda surprised myself, too. I bet that the half of you who read this even hate me by now. :( ****But I'm sure of one thing: the next part I'll update, will be the last chapter of this story... unless I suddenly decide to write an epilogue. Guh, I'll shut up now. ****Well, read, review, like it, alert and favorite, you know the drill. :)**


	19. Happily Ever After?

**A/N: Yay! The last part is finally up! Yes, I was supposed to translate Greek and Latin sentences right now (which is pretty boring when you've been doing this for 5 years already. I hope that my teacher won't read this XD ), and yes, this time I'm 100 percent sure that this is the last part of the story (or is it...? It's always fun to keep you guessing.) Seems that I can't even trust myself anymore. What's happening to the world, people? ...Okay, the real "drama" starts now. Hope you like, 'cause I'm kinda nervous about this chapter, since it's the last one. I hope you won't hate me too much after reading this... Enjoy reading and be sure to check out my poll and vote for the most awesome character of KH and Final Fantasy! ;D**

**Thanks: Aika08, an1995616, OrganizationsNumberXIII, Aqua StormXIV, Shanny-Boo, Mooncry, UltraWonderBoy, Sovereign Beta, Ashcroitt, NightDiamond358, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Lightning Farron, Kisdota-The Freak Gamer, siraaronjunior and Eternal Darkness13**

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Terra was behaving very strangely in her presence lately. She had noticed this a few weeks after the start of the prankwar. He talked less and less with her and tried not to come too close to her, almost as if he was afraid of her, or as if she had a disease that was contagious, or something. What was even more remarkable was the fact that he suddenly seemed to suffer from extreme, heavy mood wings. One time he was nonchalant, other times angry, or very happy. It was almost getting scary. She understood nothing of him anymore. The one who had said that girls were strange obviously never had met the strange case that was called Terra.

Little did she know that the real reason that Terra wasn't in such a talkative mood anymore, was not because he hated her, (hell no, it was more like the opposite) but because he was getting a little nervous in this small room, where the walls seemed to come closer and closer to him as time passed, almost as if they wanted to crush him like a cockroach. No, he wasn't suffering from claustrophobia, it was the darkness that he was really scared of, for it was threatening, unknown, unpredictable and scary. This was something that Master Eraqus kept telling them, too, so then it had to be true.

He knew that he had to tell her now, otherwise he would never find an appropriate time for it, for Ven never left them alone, but the longer it lasted, the less he dared. It was as if he found more and more reasons not to do it as time passed. For one, she would laugh at him for sure. If she said no - and if he was very honest, he couldn't really blame her if she did so. He would've said no to him too, if he had been in her place. What would such a beautiful, almost perfect girl do with a rude farmer as he? - then he would even lose the intimate friendship he had build with her all these years. She wouldn't want to face him anymore. Then he would lose her forever and he didn't want that to happen.

On the other hand, if she wanted to start a relationship with him, - and deep in his heart he knew that there was a small chance that she still liked him, despite his haughty behavior - he would be the happiest man of all worlds. But he would never find out any of this if he didn't try in the first place. After all, life was a game and one should go for it. That was what he had heard. Perhaps they were right. Maybe he had to tell her, anyway... How much time did he have to think about it? This really gave him a huge migraine.

Terra made no move to form a new word on the scrabble board, so Aqua looked at him. He wasn't looking at the board and there was no frown to be seen on his forehead, as would normally be the case when he pondered how he could form new words with the letters that were still left. It looked as though he didn't even realize that it was his turn, or that Aqua was watching him so intently. That surely was strange... All he seemed to be doing was staring into the empty nothingness, as if something was bothering him immensely. If only she would know what exactly that was, then she would be able to help him.

"Terra, it's your turn," she said softly, gently touching his upperarm to get his attention.

"Huh, wha-?" He blinked his eyes several times, as if he had zoned out. Before he looked at her, he glanced at her hand that was resting on his arm as if he wanted to shake it off. He didn't, though, much to Aqua's relief. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say again?"

"It's your turn," she repeated, nodding at the board with her head to emphasis the sentence.

"Oh. Right... Sorry."

She couldn't help but notice that he said sorry a lot lately. That, and the fact that he sounded so solemn all the time. He wasn't quite being himself, that much was obvious.

Scratching his chin, Terra thought about what he would do next. Should he tell her now, or should he wait some more and go with what the future would bring him? This was probably the hardest decision he'd ever made... and ever _would_ make, too. Terra's heart hammered in his chest, as he made his decision. Aqua could probably hear it, too. Well, it was now or never. Whatever decision he would take, he had to live with it if something really bad happened. Fortunately for him, the room was still dark enough so that she couldn't see his face, and start asking awkward questions. It was time to put aside his pride and to confess his feelings for her, no matter how embarrassing it was, or would get. He put the first letter on the board.

| I |

"Veto."

_Not again_, he thought, slightly irritably.

With great difficulty, Terra suppressed a frustrated sigh. That was the fifth time already she had said that to him, coming up with a longer word who would give her more points when she would put it in the place where he had put his first letter. Aqua was just too good at this game. Knowing her, she was probably not even doing her best for him, but giving a lazy 50 percent, so he wouldn't completely go off in front her and feel ashamed about it later. She was so sweet.

Terra continued with forming the word, though, acting like he hadn't heard her at all, as he put the 'L' and the 'U' on the board. Aqua didn't take this as well as he had hoped, though, because the next thing she said was, "Terra, are you deaf? I said, "Veto!"

He didn't acknowledge that he had heard her. The board now said, | I | | L | | U | | V | | Y |. Seriously, what kind of a word was that? Terra tried not to grin at the fact that her voice sounded so irritated, again. He looked up at her, mainly to see if she was frowning or not.

Surprisingly enough, she wasn't... _Yet_, he added in his head.

"Just let me just finish this word. I'll remove all the letters when you've read it, okay?"

Aqua sighed wearily, wondering what had gotten into the teenager now

He was as stubborn as hell and she knew that he would get his way, anyway, for he always did. Besides, she didn't have any energy left to start another fight with him, so she replied with a simple, "Fine."

So far, he was sticking to the rules, so that was a good sign. She wondered how long that would stay, though.

| I | | L | | U | | V | | Y | | O | | U |

_Okay... Guess that pretty much answers my question._

"Terra, that's not even a word. You just made it up. And don't come with that crap that it _was_ a word in your home world again."

Terra shrugged indifferently. She was right and there was no way to deny that. It would only make her mad and he wasn't really in the mood for that. It wasn't something he tried to achieve with his actions, either.

"Okay."

"Terra, I mean it! You're alw-huh?"

She stopped mid-sentence when she realized what he had just said.

"I know it's not a word," he said calmly.

A small frown appeared on her delicate face. "...Then why did you-"

At that moment, her gaze happened to fall on the board again. _I... luv... you,_ Aqua repeated softly in her head.

She gasped softly when she came to the right conclusion of what he meant with that, and looked at him. He stared back at her, not planning to look away. The way he looked at her was so intense that she felt like his eyes were burning holes in her. Aqua wanted to look away but found that she couldn't. She started to wonder if she was dreaming again, or not, because this had only happened in her dreams so far. Aqua pinched her arm discreetly and it hurt. That could only mean one thing: she was fully awake and this was really happening. The flame in her hand became bigger and brighter. Terra was the first who broke the eye contact with her.

He nodded with his head toward the fire that almost blinded him by now. "Uh, Aqua?"

His deep voice had a warning undertone, making the blue-haired mage waking up out of her trance.

Aqua's attention was back to her magic again and she blushed furiously at her stupid action. "Oops. Sorry... I guess I lost control... of my magic, I mean," she hastened to add.

"I... can see that," he said, highly amused, smiling at her sudden clumsy nature.

He could tell he had surprised her a lot by this unexpected confession, by the way she had been looking at him. Aqua looked back at the board again, while she took a decision. She simply couldn't believe it. How much she had wished to hear those words before one of them would become a Master and now, her dream was finally coming true.

"Cheater. I can do that too."

Her calm voice even surprised herself. It was almost as if she hadn't said that herself. Aqua rushed to put new letters on the board.

| P | | R | | O | | V | | E | | I | | T |

She looked at him again, awaiting an answer.

"Proveit? Is that one of those strange words you learned when you were memorizing all the words and stuff out of the biggest dictionary you could find?" Terra asked, clearly confused as heck.

Aqua rolled her striking eyes. "Don't try to be funny, Terra. That was only once. And that's two words. I meant 'Prove it'."

"Oh, of course. Just wanted to be sure, that's all. Seems like you're not sticking to the rules, either. You're supposed to use only one word, remember?"

"Oh, quiet you," she chided half-heartedly, not bothering to mention that he had even put three words together in one.

| H | | O | | W |

He looked at her, demanding her with his cobalt colored eyes to answer. Neither of them were sticking to the rules anymore, and albeit it would normally piss Aqua off beyond reason, - which was always fun to watch, especially if it was because of someone else rather than him - she didn't seem to mind now. And was it just the light, or was she really blushing a tiny bit?

She looked at her letters and slowly formed the word | K | | I | | S | | S | on the big board.

Aqua looked at him questioningly, tilting her head slightly to the side, while waiting for his reaction. Would he start to yell at her, or maybe even laugh at her?

"You... want me to... kiss you?" he dared to ask, trying to mask his surprise.

This was getting weirder and weirder. Aqua had never showed such feelings towards him and now that she was finally doing this, it only confused him. She nodded slowly, biting her lower lip as she tried not to look away. He scratched the back of his head. It was a sign that he didn't know what to do. She sure had surprised him, again.

"Where?"

_Where? That's all he has to say?_

Here, she had half expected that he would laugh at her, but his facial expression hadn't changed one bit.

She shrugged. "Surprise me." Aqua then looked at her knees as if they were the most interesting objects she had ever seen, as she added shyly, "But you don't have to, if you don't want to. I mean, I understand it completely if you-"

Apparently, he had made up his mind already, because the next thing he did was taking her hands in his and bending slightly forward. Aqua didn't even have the time to hyperventilate, or anything. The moment that his lips touched hers, she stopped thinking, causing the flame in her hand to go out. Time seemed to stand still in the small room. His lips were so soft and warm, making her wish that this could last forever. It made her whole body tingle and she felt even how hard her blood was being pumped through her veins. Even though the kiss was with closed mouth and lasted for only five seconds, this was by far the best five seconds of her life. Why only five seconds, you might wonder. Well, they broke away very soon, because they were both startled by a strange, rasping sound that seemed to come from the other side of the door.

"Rats?" Aqua squeaked, terrified.

If there was something she really hated, after darkness and spiders, it was rats. She felt a lot for jumping in Terra's lap, but she had no time do to that, for suddenly, the door opened. Aqua and Terra both held their hands in front of their eyes, because the light was too bright for them.

"Wow, no wonder you had glued the door shut. I would've done that too, in this case," Ven said teasingly.

Even though he hadn't seen what had happened inside, he knew that his suspicions were close enough to reality. Especially because he had been overhearing their conversation for the past half hour. Aqua and Terra both looked at him angrily and Terra even went far enough to throw a few of those plastic Scrabble blocks to Ven's head. Aqua didn't stop him this time. One hit Ven in the middle of his forehead.

"Ow! Is that your way of showing your gratitude? If you hadn't been the one who had to cook, Aqua, then you would have been in here even until tomorrow," Ven said grumpily.

Terra stood up and offered Aqua his hand to help her up.

Aqua smiled and took his hand gratefully. "I think we all know who really glued the door shut," said Aqua, as she looked sharply at Ven.

She dusted herself off.

"Well, it wasn't me. I'm not as childish as you two..." Aqua and Terra both rolled their eyes in response, "Oh, and before I forget, Master Eraqus wants to speak both of you now, in the kitchen. I wonder what you two have done now."

After he had said that, Ven left the room again.

"Okay, that was-" Terra was interrupted by Aqua, who gave him a quick peck on the cheek and then walked out of the small room. "...Hard to believe," he mumbled, finishing his sentence and touching his cheek on the place where she had kissed him, before he followed her.

Master Eraqus sat at the kitchen table when his two disciples entered the kitchen together, seeming to be in deep thought about something.

Their teacher looked up from his hands. "Master, you wished to speak us?" Aqua asked.

"Yes. Did you clean the stockingroom?"

"Yes, but some-"

"Good," Master Eraqus spoke, interrupting Terra with a small wave of his hands. "Terra, I want you to help Aqua with cooking, because apparently, the only way to stop your pranks is to keep you both busy. I do not want any more arguments between the two of you. I'll be in my study room and I don't want to be disturbed before dinner."

"Okay, Master, but we actually want-"

"Then I'll see you two later. Call me when dinner's ready," their Master said, this time interrupting Aqua.

"Yes, Master."

They watched his retreating back as he swiftly left the kitchen. Once he was out of earshot, Aqua softly asked, "Is it just me, or didn't he want us to tell him about the glued door? Normally, he would let us finish our sentence first, before saying something else."

Terra nodded thoughtfully. So he hadn't been the only one who had noticed this strange behavior? That was a good thing, because at least he wasn't losing his mind.

"No, you're completely right. As always."

Aqua smiled warmly at him. "I think you're exaggerating here."

"No, I'm not and you know that," Terra said, with a smile, taking one of her hands in his and squeezing it slightly. "So, what's on the cooking menu today? You decide, since I'll only be in your way, anyways."

* * *

Cooking dinner was a piece of cake for Aqua (no pun intended). It had always been so, and with Terra's help, she was done in no time. They set the table together, just like they used to do back in the old days, when they hadn't known Ven yet. For Terra, everything seemed to be perfect now.

"Oh, Terra, could you get Master Eraqus, then I'll go look for Ven," Aqua said.

Normally, Terra would've wondered why she wanted to look for Ven, and not for their Master, but things had changed in the small and dark room. She had showed him that there was no reason to become jealous of the bond between Aqua and Ven. Not that he had ever been jealous, of course. Why would he? (Yes, that was what he told himself.)

"Sure."

He nodded briefly and headed for the kitchen's entrance. He walked through the long hallway and reached his Master's office. Just when Terra wanted to knock on the door, Ven's loud voice made him halt. Terra frowned. What was Ven doing in Master Eraqus' office? He wasn't in trouble, was he? Careful, as of not to make any suspicious sounds, the brunet male put his ear against the door, in hopes of hearing something useful. He didn't get disappointed, though.

_"Ventus, I really hope you know what you're doing from now on. We wouldn't want to actually kill any of them, now would we?" _That was Master Eraqus.

Doing what? Kill who? What were they talking about?

_"*Deep sigh.* Just because I made one tiny little mistake doesn't mean that I'll kill everyone off! I'm not a child anymore!" _Ven cried, defending himself.

What the heck was Ven talking about? He still was a child, for he still was a minor, Terra thought, his frown growing deeper.

_"Of course not, but I almost broke my neck this morning, all because of your tiny little mistake."_

"Hey Terra, what do you think you're-"

Terra turned around quickly and motioned with one hand for Aqua to be silent. Aqua frowned, and mouthed, _"What's wrong?"_

Terra beckoned at her and pointed to the door. Aqua made a disapproving sound, but came closer nonetheless. She leaned on the wall next to the door and listened to the conversation Ven and Master Eraqus were having.

_"Didn't I tell you at least three times that we wouldn't use the prank with the wire? It was far too dangerous! One could've broken a bone! I could've broken a bone!"_

_"Master, I told you I was sorry! I thought I had made it up with you by my acting and the rest of the pranks. Besides, I'm still a child. I make mistakes. What else did you expect?"_

This time, their Master sighed. _"First, you're saying you're not a child anymore, and then you say you still are one. Can't make up your mind about what you really are? Well, I guess you're right, anyway, Ven. Nothing serious happened, so it doesn't matter. Did they tell you something about the door?"_

Ven started to laugh. _"Yeah, they thought it was me who had done that. I bet they still have no idea that you were the actual brain behind all these things. The glow-in-the-dark-hairdye was my favorite. It was brilliant!"_

Aqua gasped softly. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She looked at Terra, her eyes as wide as saucers, while Terra's were squeezed into thin slits.

_"Thanks, Ven. Now let us head to the kitchen. I can smell the pizza from here and I have to say that they did a splendid job again."_

They heard some thumping in the background. It was probably the two of them heading for the office's door. Aqua was quick to summon her Keyblade, Rainfall, and Terra followed her example. The door of Master Eraqus' study opened and the owner of the study opened the door, followed by a cheerful Ven. They both stopped walking the moment they spotted Aqua and Terra, standing in front of them.

"Master Eraqus, Ven, don't you have something to explain to us?" Aqua asked, rather coolly.

The tip of her Keyblade sparked with fire, but it wasn't normal fire. This fire was blue and looked as cold as ice. The two unarmed people gulped, all color draining from their face.

"How long were you two standing there?" the wise man eventually dared to ask.

"Long enough to know whose fault my hair is," Aqua answered.

She had a strange glint in her eyes, which made her look dangerous, almost maniacal. She looked like she was about to strike...

"Aqua, we can explain all of this," Ven nervously piqued.

"Explain it to my Keyblade..."

**_~ End... __Or is it? ~_**

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**A/N: Thanks for reading! ****Hope you've enjoyed it as far as it went. ^_^ I'm sad to say that this is the end then. The reason that I chose not to make it too much of a sappy, romantic ending is because in my eyes it wouldn't fit KH BBS (it was all pre BBS, remember?). You can see this as a start of their "relationship," if you believe that those two have a crush on each other, that is, 'cause in the game itself he doesn't really seem that interested in her... but that doesn't mean that I won't be writing any one-shots about them, that is, if anyone's interested, of course.**

**But it would explain what Aqua meant when she said something like, SPOILER "What going to happen to us, Terra?" SPOILER ENDS.**

**Oh, and you know what's really strange? This is the first multiple chaptered story that I've actually finished after being more than three years on this site, which is... well, strange for me. XD**

**The title of the next chapter... oh wait. Never mind. I'm gonna miss saying that. :( There _is_ a way you can cheer me up, though.**** Push the review button and review, even if (and especially _because_) it's for the last time for this story. XP You know what would be cool? 321 reviews, but I know that there aren't that many people who would like to review. Too bad, though. :(**

**Before I forget, I'll be writing more BBS realated one-shots/stories, but I need a beta reader for it, especially for the grammar part (as some of you could already tell from reading this story). It won't only be about romance and humor, because BBS is actually pretty dark, right? So please let me know if you would like to beta read for me. I would really, really, really appreciate that. Really. :) Especially if you're one of those beta readers that explain why you changed certain words/parts, and such.**

**Wow, this has become a pretty long A/N. I'd better stop rambling now, before it gets longer than the story itself. Yes, it's not hard for me to do that (want me to prove it?).**


	20. Epilogue: How It All Started

**A/N: Sorry, guys. It seems that I can't say goodbye to this story yet. I just had to write an epilogue about it, because I thought that I had left some questions unanswered, so here it is. I have to admit that in the beginning I wasn't sure if I should post this, or keep it to myself, but I decided to do the latter. Don't ask me why, because I have no idea. I do solemnly swear that this is really the last chapter of this story, even though I don't think this counts as a chapter. This one's mainly about Terra and Ven, though. Anyways, thanks for the many reviews, alerts and favorites! It's very appreciated and you made me very happy with it.**

**Special thanks: M. L. Ayala, the fastest beta reader ever. :)**

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_~ And it'll only get worse as soon as I tell him what Aqua told me. ~_

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It was a bright, sunny Sunday in the always beautiful Land of Departure. In fact, this day seemed to be exceptionally beautiful. It was as though all the birds were singing louder today, doing their best to sing even better than usual. The weather just seemed to reflect Terra's current mood: blissful.

Terra was lying on the grass, his eyes closed. He was simply enjoying how the sun warmed his skin. He couldn't believe that everything was back to normal again. Well, actually it was better than normal, seeing the circumstances.

Of course, Aqua had been only _this_ close to attacking Ven and the Master that day. This had even scared Terra a little. Said wielder of the Keyblade couldn't help but smile as he thought back about the events that had taken place, roughly a week ago.

* * *

_**~ A few days ago ~**_

Terra felt very stupid now. Honestly, how could he not have seen that it had been Ven _and_ the Master who had planned all this today? All this time, he had been suspecting Aqua to be the one who had been behind the pranks. He now knew that love really made everyone blind, but one couldn't blame him, right?

He returned to reality when Aqua summoned her Keyblade, Rainfall. That meant that this was serious business. Terra decided to follow her example, just in case. With Aqua, one could never know for sure, but that was one of the things he liked so much about her.

The door of Master Eraqus's study opened and the owner of the study was the one who had opened the door, with a cheerful Ven walking right behind him. They both stopped walking instantly, the moment they spotted Aqua and Terra, standing in front of them. A rather awkward silence was the result, because neither of them knew what to say or do next.

"Master Eraqus, Ven, don't you have something to explain?" Aqua asked coolly.

The tip of her Keyblade started to spark with fire, but it wasn't normal fire. This fire was blue and so hot that it would feel cold as ice if it would make contact with anyone's skin. The two unarmed people gulped at that sight. Terra couldn't blame them.

"How long were you two standing there?" the wise man finally dared to ask them, albeit in a calm tone.

Terra thought it was a wonder that his voice didn't quiver. But then again, with years of experience, it was only logical that Master Eraqus knew how to control his voice in order to fool everyone.

"Long enough to know whose fault my hair is," Aqua answered, still with that same scary and cool voice.

She had a strange glint in her eyes, which made her look _very_ dangerous. She looked like she was about to strike...

Terra was ready to come immediately into action if he had to. In fact, he was mentally preparing himself for the possibility that he might have to jump in between Aqua and the Master (because he was sure that Aqua would never attack Ven), but what he didn't expect was for Aqua to start laughing out of the blue. By the look on everyone else's face, nobody was expecting this.

Terra frowned, briefly wondering if she had lost her mind, or something. "Aqua, are you okay?" he asked.

Aqua stopped laughing. She didn't reply, but de-materialized her Keyblade and leaped forward to catch Ven in a bone-crushing hug, before the poor boy could react fully on it.

"Wow! A-Aqua, easy...can't...breathe," Ven started.

Aqua laughed again and then let go of him, before changing her mind and hugging him once again. A faint blush appeared on Ven's cheeks, while Terra could almost feel how the atmosphere changed from tense into a blissful one.

"Aqua, everyone's watching," Ven muttered, sounding a little embarrassed.

It was as though a younger brother felt embarrassed because his older sister was telling him how sweet he was in front of all his friends, while he had tried to look all tough for months. Ven was such a boy sometimes.

Ven's face colored a brighter shade of red when Aqua kissed both of his cheeks and whispered "Thank you."

Terra smirked at that. He decided that when this was over, he would try to find a perfect match for Ven. It was the least he could do after everything he had done to bring Ven's two best friends together.

"She's right, Ven, but don't expect me to hug and kiss you, too. I hope you're not too disappointed by that," he said, in a teasing manner.

"Oh, shut up!" Ven's face had the color of a tomato now, and Terra snickered.

Teasing Ven happened to be one of his favorite hobbies, just like teasing Aqua. Their reactions to what he did or said to them were both funny.

After Ven, Aqua hugged the Master...

* * *

The silence around him was truly peaceful. Terra yawned, stretching slowly. He had almost fallen asleep right then and there, had it not been for someone to call his name. Terra decided not to answer and just pretend to be asleep, but he should've known that it was impossible to ignore this person just like that.

"Hey, Terra! Long time no seen," Ven's said, rather cheerfully, as he knelt down and prodded Terra's side as a greet.

He did this on purpose, because he knew how ticklish Terra was there, and how incredibly annoyed he would get if he did so. The only time he didn't seem to mind it that much, was when Aqua decided to be mischievous and tickle him.

"Stop it," Terra growled, menacingly and with a low voice.

He cracked one eye open to give Ven one of his famous _looks_, but the younger apprentice didn't seem to be fazed by that at all. Whatever solitude Terra had planned for today was immediately shot to hell when Ven sat down next to him, much to his dismay. He tried to ignore him for the second time that day.

"Whoa, someone's a little _cranky_ today," Ven said, in a pretty annoying sing-song voice. "But don't worry, it's hard to notice, really."

_And it'll only get worse as soon as I tell him what Aqua told me. I'm pretty sure of that one_, he thought, grinning evilly, but he didn't voice that particular thought.

He would find out more about it soon, anyway.

"No, I'm not. _You're_ just a little too cheerful for my liking," Terra noted, his eyes closed again.

"Oh, believe me, you would be, too, if you were me."

Terra now opened both his eyes, but only to eye his friend suspiciously. It seemed that Ven knew something that he didn't. He was dying to tell Terra more about it, but at the same time he wanted to keep it to himself. At least, that was what it looked like, and he knew Ven long enough to come to the right conclusion.

"Oh?" he said, almost incredulously, raising a brow.

Ven didn't seem to notice the incredulous overtone, because he just continued. "Yeah. But since you're not me, but you, you won't be that happy to hear it. So I'm not going to tell you, 'cause you're cranky enough as it is, and that while your day isn't even ruined yet."

"For the last time, I am _NOT_..." he stopped when he saw Ven's grin becoming wider, because he had raised his voice. "Okay, then don't. I couldn't care less."

Terra closed his eyes again and now turned away from him. Ven had already expected to hear something like this, so he wasn't surprised.

He did have a trump card, though, and he didn't hesitate to use it. "Oh, really? Not even when it's...you know, about you and Aqua?"

Terra turned swiftly back to face him, and for the third time, he opened his eyes to stare at Ven, who was able to hide his triumphant expression right in time. "What is it?" he demanded, at once.

The younger boy widened his cerulean eyes. "Oh, I thought you didn't care?" Ven said, quasi-surprised.

Terra chose not to react to that last comment, knowing very well that Ven was only teasing him. "Ven, don't be such a tease all the time, or I'll be acting worse when you get a girlfriend. Now, what is it?"

Ven run a hand through his spikes, causing them to look more tangled than ever. "Aren't you jealous of me sometimes?" Ven suddenly asked, trying to derive from the subject.

It seemed to work, too, because the next thing Terra did, was ask "...What do you mean?"

"Well, is Aqua ever calling you by your nickname?"

"No..." Terra replied, slowly.

Ven snickered as he thought of a suitable nickname for Terra: 'Terry.' It sounded stupid enough in his head, so he could only imagine how dumb it would sound if he said it in public. Terry. It sounded like an old man of forty-something years old.

"What are you laughing about?" Terra asked, almost aghast.

"Nothing," he quickly replied. "But unlike you, I _do_ have a nickname. She calls me _'Ven,_' remember? Are you feeling jealous now?"

Terra rolled his eyes. Unbelievable. If Ven was trying to make him jealous this way, then it didn't work. He had to try harder if that was his goal.

"Well, I call you 'Ven,' too, remember? And believe me, it's not because I love you. Besides, I think we both agree on the fact that 'Ter' doesn't sound half as good as 'Ven' does. Now, are you going to tell me why you're so happy today, or do I have to ask Aqua to tell me more about it?"

Ven sighed. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"I'll take the risk of getting a heart-attack and I promise not to get mad at you if something happens, so go ahead."

"Very well, then. Do you even remember how all of this started?" Ven asked.

"Unfortunately, I do. You decided to bug me when I was about to fall asleep and-"

"Not that!" Ven cried impatiently, interrupting him immediately. "I was talking about the almost eternal "_prankwar_" between you and Aqua."

"Oh..." Terra frowned, trying to come up with the right answer. "Now that you've mentioned it, no, not really. All I can remember is that Aqua was the one who had started it, using her make-up to give me a 'metamorphosis,' as she called it. But why in Chaos's name she had done that, I have no idea."

Wasn't that strange? They had just started pranking each other, out of the blue, without ever wondering _why _they were doing it in the first place. At least, he had never done so, because he had seen it as some challenge, but he wasn't too sure of Aqua and her possible motives. What had her made doing something she would normally _NEVER_ do?

"You know what's funny? That's _exactly_ what I thought after I heard Aqua's story."

"What did she say?" Terra's voice was urgent now.

Ven started to inspect his nails, thoroughly. What he was expecting to see, Terra didn't know, but it frustrated him to no end that he took his time to answer his question.

"Well, she mainly said that the reason she started this prankwar, was because you had pissed her off a little. Don't you remember what had happened that day at all?"

Terra tried to remember it, he really did. The general things, a detail, he didn't care, as long as it was _something_.

"I can only remember...that I had a headache that day...and that I had taken painkillers, because of the training. I can't remember anything that happened after I took some pills for my migraine, though, except that I woke up in my own bed and walked downstairs, because I thought that dinner would be ready anytime soon."

Ven nodded, thinking that he was close enough, even though he didn't seem to remember the most important things. "I see. Well, Aqua remembers the rest, and believe me, it's a good thing you don't remember any of it, because then you wouldn't be able to face her anymore," Ven said, with a smug look on his face.

He was having too much fun with this.

At once, Terra sat up on his elbows. "What do you mean by that?" His eyes were narrowed into thin slits, while his voice had a rather sharp edge in it.

"Let's say that not only did you flirt with her and asked her to kiss you, but you called her father a terrorist, Aqua herself the bomb, and you insulted her in many ways, from the way she looked, to her cooking. How about that?"

Ven counted all the negative events on his fingers, as he mentioned them all shortly. Terra paled a few shades after he heard that.

Suddenly, his throat felt very dry. "Really?" Terra asked.

He had called her father a _terrorist? _That... wasn't good. At all. How was he ever going to face her now that he knew this?

"Well, that's what she said. If you don't believe me, then you can ask her for herself," Ven replied.

Terra didn't think that was necessary, though, because there was no reason for Ven to lie about such things. He wouldn't benefit from it. Besides, Ven hardly ever lied.

"Where is she?" Terra asked, sounding urgently again.

Ven gave him a rather incredulous look, almost as if he couldn't believe that he was asking this. "Where do you think she is?" he asked.

Oh, right. This was Aqua they were talking about. There was only one place where she could be found alone.

"The library," they cried, simultaneously.

They were sure that Aqua would stay there for the rest of her life if she could. Both of them had never met someone who liked books and reading more than she did, or did they think they would ever meet such a person.

With that, Terra got up and marched right to the library. He had to find her and apologize, and soon. As he walked past a rose bush, he picked up the biggest and most beautiful one among all of them, for Aqua. Just because.

* * *

**A/N: _NOW_ this story's finished. Thanks for reading this! =) Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ So which one was your favorite chapter/prank? Reviews are highly appreciated! :) Oh, and for the Tequa-fans out there, I would appreciate it if you could check out my stories "Lucky Shield" and "Hard to Breathe." The latter will be an ABC-story with 26 chapters about this couple (it's in the works, and only 3 chapters long now. Shameless advertising, I know).**

**REVIEW SHOUT-OUT: Karma's Slave, BloodyAphrodite, XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, MrKurosaki09, Aqua Azul, Sovereign Beta, Aqua StormXIV, CrimsonDarkness 0013, Wolfsbane706, Mooncry, VainexArabella4ever, Shanny-Boo, WonderHeroe, Revolution Remix IX, junebaby92, (), OrganizationsNumberXIII, Nasha Rei-Kun, kalulu 1080, Axrat, Ashcroitt, NightDiamond358, an1995616, Kisdota-The Freak Gamer, WaterAngel Alyssa, Dream Adept, DreamSeerXIII, Echo of Rain 07, Thunder-Eternity, weatherprophetK, Feltide Ironworker, ventus4ever, Pomegranata, Kirei Ryuusei, Aika08, TerraForce XIII, JackDarkStone, zenbon zakura, Lol kingdom hearts, Viridian Blast, The Waterbender, darkteaparty, The Writing Artist, sunshinemeg82, VanillaCookiesxD, LeHurrDurr, LBWind, MeNerf, foxthefox, TheGirlofManyNicknames, Nyx's-Angel, Light27, Chandramukhi, HawkRider, xsunny15x, and last, Berry4145, Meh Powers ACTIV, Elguardiuz, and everyone who might review after this. :)**


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